


Unprofessional Relations

by MegaKat



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (TV), Dragon Ball
Genre: Accidental Plot, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Boss/Employee Relationship, F/M, Sailor Moon kicking genuine ass as she should, Sailor Moon vs gangs, Secret Identity Fail, Vegeta teams up with her, and it is epicly awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-02-14 16:09:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 102,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2198226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaKat/pseuds/MegaKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Working for Vegeta is hard enough as it is, but Usagi's got it twice as bad, trying to moonlight as Sailor Moon on the side. Eventually it becomes a little too hard to juggle and she winds up getting help in an unexpected place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

No one was stupid enough to break into Capsule Corp.

                That’s what Vegeta told himself when his superior hearing picked up a slight bang coming from what was probably the med lab. If the woman had still been among the living, a noise like that wouldn’t have been out of place at three in the morning, nor would it be if his son wasn’t at school abroad. Hm… maybe he’d set something too close to the edge of a table and it had simply tipped over.

                He turned off the television and listened for a few moments, and when he heard what sounded like a quiet, shuddering gasp, he knew he wasn’t alone in the compound. “Looks like some punk’s got a deathwish,” he growled under his breath as he floated quickly down the hallway, completely silent. The Saiyan prince could smell the blood from the doorway, that sharp, coppery scent was so damned strong that it hit his nose like a freight train. That alone was what stopped him from barging in and stomping the shit out of anyone immediately.

                Blood meant injury, which meant pain, which meant desperation and panic. True, he didn’t really need to worry about any of those things, since he was tied for first with Kakarot as the strongest being on the planet, but Vegeta hadn’t gotten as far as he had without learning a thing or two about caution and stealth.

                Just barely cracking open the swinging doors to the med lab, Vegeta’s brows shot to his hairline at the sight of someone he definitely recognized. It was that moon woman he’d seen on the TV nearly every damned night for at least fifteen years. And by the look of it, she’d gotten fucked over pretty badly by someone, most likely a robber with great aim— or insane luck— if she was really as fast as they said she was on the news.

                Vegeta simply watched her for a long time as she slowly and quietly set up some instruments on a towel-covered tray before pulling herself up onto an exam table with her good arm and leg. Every woman he’d ever encountered since he’d landed on Earth would have been screaming their heads off at the amount of pain she had to be in, but the heroine only grit her teeth and sucked in a breath as she rolled onto the table and sat up without making a sound.

                His eyebrows rose again as she ripped off the skirt to her fuku and frowned down at a bleeding hole in her thigh, then he smirked as she mouthed a few swear words he was very familiar with. Gods… was she actually going to dig that bullet out of her own leg? Vegeta inwardly sighed as he noted the placement and the angle, and knew damned well that if he didn’t stop her right then, he’d likely be burying a corpse in the woods the next morning… and he hated that kind of clean-up, damn it.

                He made his decision just as she pulled a strange-looking stick out of nowhere and stuck it between her teeth, most likely to muffle her cries of pain once she started digging into her open wounds. “Stop,” he grunted, swinging the double doors open. He wasn’t surprised when she leapt off the table and into a fighting stance, but he was slightly impressed. Not only had she done so fluidly while ignoring her obvious injuries, but she’d taken a form that wouldn’t put a ton of pressure on that leg and would utilize the limbs that were still whole. “Not going to fight you, woman,” he said with another grunt, waving a dismissive hand her way. “Sit down before you fall down.” He rolled his eyes and huffed when she only continued to eye him warily and bleed on the floor.

                Vegeta shrugged and merely waited, but when the puddle on the floor only got bigger, he sighed in exasperation. “You want to keep bleeding on the tile, woman? Or do you want to get patched up?”

                “I don’t need your help.”

                “Normally I’d say ‘suit yourself’ and be on my merry fucking way, but if you dig that bullet out of your thigh you’re going to bleed out in a matter of minutes. And I’d rather not be stuck burying a fucking body in the morning. So do us both a favor and sit your ass down while I wash my hands. Stupid women,” he muttered to himself as he turned his back on her and went to the sink, where he rolled up his sleeves and scrubbed to the elbows.

                He was satisfied when he heard her slide back onto the table with a gasp and a tiny groan, and once his hands were dry he stepped up to the table. “You can’t just dig around near the femoral artery, woman,” he muttered as he picked up the instrument she’d held only a few moments before.

                “Wouldn’t be the first time I’d done it,” she whispered bitterly, nodding to the scar on her other leg. “I heal fast,” she explained, “so I’m not in as much danger as you would think. And I’m extremely fucking hard to kill.”

                Noting a few other very faint scars on her legs and arms, Vegeta merely nodded and pointed to the stick with the crescent moon on it that she’d been about to bite down on. “You’re still gonna need that, moon woman.”

                Sailor Moon stuck her wand in her mouth and gave a quick nod to signal that she was ready, and her muffled yell filled the room as Vegeta quickly shoved the tool into the wound and quickly located the bullet. It wasn’t in deep, at least, and he easily extracted it before reaching for the stitching materials she’d set on the tray before she’d sat down for the first time.

                “Thank you,” she whispered, quickly brushing away the tears on her cheeks. “It was an armed robbery at a convenience store. The bastards had automatic weapons and just started spraying the fucking place with bullets when I showed.”

                Lucky shot, then. That answered his question as to how she’d managed to get hit. The prince sewed up the wound with a speed that spoke of years of experience with that sort of thing before bandaging it. “Why here?” He asked flatly.

                “No press, no doctors, no assholes trying to take my blood to run tests on it. And I know Capsule Corp has a full medical setup. And if I’d gone in my civilian form, I would have been just as screwed. Gunshot wounds are reported to the police.  I made that mistake once before, and now some bad people have an idea who I am. I don’t want that to happen again.” Sailor Moon sighed a little and shook her head. “I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone caught me using this place.”

                That stopped Vegeta dead in his tracks, and he looked up at her, glaring darkly into her crystal blue eyes. “You mean this isn’t the first time you’ve used my lab, woman?”

                With a simple rise and fall of her uninjured shoulder, she confirmed his suspicions. “Sorry. Not much choice when you want to keep a low profile, and I _did_ always clean up after myself.”

                “How many years have you been using this place?” He asked curiously.

                “Huh… about nine?” She thought about that for a long moment and finally shook her head. “No. Eight. Eight years. I was twenty-one when I got shot in the calf, and I wasn’t far from here, so this is where I headed.”

                And he hadn’t heard her a single time until tonight. Damn, if that didn’t speak volumes for her stealth skills. The girl was like a fucking ninja!

                Obviously she’d pissed him off a little, and she huffed at the look he was giving her. “I’d say I’d pay for everything I’ve used, but I don’t make much. My boss is a bit of a cheap asshole,” she added with a humorless chuckle.

                “It’s not the money,” Vegeta grunted. “It’s the fact that I have extremely good hearing I haven’t heard you once.”

                “Well, I banged the tray, damn it!” She snapped at him. “I’m right-handed, and since I can’t use my right at the moment for obvious reasons, I kind of bobbled it!”

                “And you were going to remove a bullet next to an artery with your weak hand?” Vegeta scoffed incredulously. “You might be the quietest damned mover I’ve ever encountered, but you’re also the most idiotic.” He shook his head in annoyance as he moved to her back and eyed the two bullet holes in her shoulder. “Deep breath,” he ordered. “And hold it.” How she was going to remove these was beyond him, but he didn’t bother asking as he prepared to dig into her shoulder.

                The heroine did as she was told as she bit down on her wand again, and she couldn’t help but be impressed at his skill; he was in and out of both gunshot wounds in mere seconds while she gave a pair of muffled cries and clenched her gloved fists against the pain. She let her wand drop into her lap as she panted for air and waited for him to finished stitching her up, and when he clipped the last bit of thread, she slid to the edge of the table and carefully balanced on her good leg. “Thank you again. I’ll clean up in a few minutes; my wounds couldn’t start mending on their own while the bullets were still in them, but now I should be fine in a day or two.”

                “You’re not human, then.”

                She shook her head slightly. “No, I’m not.” When she turned her head to find him regarding her patiently, waiting for her to elaborate, she shrugged. “What does it matter?”

                “Call it curiosity. You owe me for eight years of medical supplies, the least you could do would be to humor me.” Vegeta smirked, knowing he’d won when she sighed and looked at the floor. “So, what are you?”

                “Lunarian.” Sailor Moon got the mop and used her good arm to soak it down in the sink before getting started on the trail of blood that started at the window and ended in a puddle at the side of the table.

                Vegeta blinked and stared for a moment. “The Moon Kingdom’s been gone for centuries, woman. They were all slaughtered; right down to the last man, woman and child.”

                “Reincarnated. I’m the last one left.” She put the mop up and started on the exam table, then stuck all the instruments in the machine that would clean and sterilize them for later use. “There, all done,” she said wearily. Sailor Moon looked at him a little awkwardly before tipping her head in respect. “Thank you again… I won’t come here anymore. I’ll find another place.”

                Vegeta surprised both of them when he suddenly spoke, just before she’d climbed out the window. “No, I’m the only one that uses this room, anyway. Just call ahead next time so I don’t blast you to hell. That’s what I usually do to intruders,” he added with a savage grin.

##########################

                Usagi broke down when she entered her bedroom window to find her apartment ransacked. They’d found her again, it seemed, but they’d never find what they were looking for. The crystal wasn’t just in a compact anymore, sitting around where anyone could find it and scoop it up. It was part of her body now, and even if it weren’t, she wouldn’t be dumb enough to let it out of her subspace pocket.

                Pulling her phone from her subspace, Usagi dialed her job.

                “What?”

                “It’s Usagi. I’m afraid I have to call out for today, my apartment was broken into, and—“

                “Woman, your personal life is no concern of mine. If you work for me, you show up on time, or your ass is out of a job,” he replied gruffly.

                “I have never called in sick in ten years, Mr. Briefs, have never taken a vacation, and—“

                “What in the hell do you even do around here anyway, woman? The only thing I’ve ever seen you do is play around on that damned computer of yours! Fuck it, you’re fired.” Click.

                Usagi nearly crushed her phone against the wall in her fury, but took some solace in the fact that she’d finally called him a cheap bastard to his face that night… even if he hadn’t known who she was. “No… this is fine. This is just fine. You fucking hated that job anyway, and he never showed you any appreciation. Trunks will give you a good reference if you need it, and that dumbass will be miserable when he realizes just how much work goes into running that fucking company.”

###########################

                “The fuck?” Vegeta frowned at the first sip of his coffee and immediately dumped it in the sink before fixing himself another cup. The second one tasted nearly as vile as the first, and he growled in annoyance as the second followed the first down the drain. “You!” He said sharply to a maid who was simply passing through. “Where’s the coffee? The good coffee?”

                The maid shrugged. “Ms. Usagi always makes the coffee, sir. I meant to ask you anyway, did Ms. Usagi still want the spare rooms aired out on the west side of the compound, or had she changed her mind before you fired her?” That last bit was said with just the slightest smile; all of the Capsule Corp domestic employees were going to have an immensely entertaining time bothering the boss with all of the mundane day-to-day questions that Usagi fielded.

                “Sir?” A man asked from the doorway. “The delivery truck for the landscaping is waiting outside. I need someone to sign the invoice and supervise the unloading.”

                “Ms. Usagi,” the maid supplied with a smile.

                “So I guessed,” Vegeta grunted. Alright, fine. This wouldn’t be so hard… right? If a slip of a woman that he rarely even saw could take care of all of this, he could do it, too. After all, he was the crown prince of Vegeta-sai. “Fine. You sign the invoice and supervise the unloading,” Vegeta told the man. Then he pointed at the maid. “You do whatever you think should be done for the day. I’ll be in the damned gravity room.”

                There! That was easy enough, wasn’t it? What in the hell was he paying a personal assistant for anyway if he could simply point and tell people what to do? He’d figure out the coffee eventually, too.

                #####################

                “Mr. Briefs?”

                “What!? I haven’t even been in here for fifteen damned minutes! Can’t any of you do your jobs without someone holding your hands!?”

                “Mr. Briefs, this is a very large compound… if you haven’t noticed,” the butler told him dryly. “Your PA supervised all of the goings-on here, and without her… well… sorry to be blunt, but shit’s falling apart out here. And your son’s on the phone, sir.”

                “Urgh… fine.” Vegeta shut down the gravity and stomped outside to take the phone. It was already ten in the morning, he’d finally broken the damned coffee maker in a fit of rage when he’d yet again failed to make it properly, and then he’d come out here to let off some steam after instructing ten other employees to just go do something productive. “What?” He snapped into the phone.

                “Father, is Usa sick or something? I need the files for the day and she hasn’t sent them over yet.”

                “The what?”

                “Dear Kami…” Trunks sighed and shook his head. “Fuck. Where is Usagi at?”

                “I fired her this morning.”

                “What!? Why, Father!?”

                “She called out of work, and I told her she was fired,” Vegeta grunted. He was already regretting the action, but his son’s worried tone told him he was only about to regret it even more.

                “She hasn’t called out in ten years, Father. And you _fired_ her?” Now Trunks sounded angry, and the teen took a deep breath before continuing. “Father, we had millions of dollars riding on a stock deal this morning, and without those files, we’re going to lose the opportunity to make that money. I want you to call Usagi right now and offer her job back.”

                “No.”

                “Fine, Father. Then go upstairs to my room, and call all of the necessary people to make this deal go through. I have an exam in an hour, and I was merely going to go over the deal quickly before signing it and faxing it to Usagi and the brokers. I simply can’t do it today. The phone numbers are in a file on my desktop, and the spreadsheets should be in another file that Usagi would have saved to my slave harddrive.”

                Vegeta blinked and inwardly groaned. Computers? Dear gods, he hated human computers more than anything. Even more than Kakarot. He hung up the phone and handed it to the butler. “Call the damned woman and offer her job back,” he grunted.

                “A wise choice, sir,” he chuckled softly. He dialed Usagi, frowned after several moments of speaking with her, and hung up. “Her exact words, sir, were ‘shove it up your ass.’ Would you like me to call her again? She hung up on me.”

                “No,” Vegeta grunted. “Dial the number and hand me the phone.” He took it this time, and was a little shocked to hear a growl that rivaled his own.

                “No, Bryan! You can go tell that pompous, arrogant, heartless, idiotic motherfucker that he can take that job and shove it up his fucking ass!” A woman’s voice snarled through the earpiece.

                “I suppose I could try to, but I’m sure my ass would be a tight fit,” Vegeta muttered dryly.

                There was a moment of silence before she spoke again, and the prince could hear a lot of banging and crashing in the background. “So, the high-and-mighty douchebag finally decides to call and apologize himself?” She snorted.

                “Something like that. I need you here within the hour; Trunks called and there’s some sort of computer thing that I know nothing about. And then there’s the coffee—“

                “I’m not coming back, asshole.” Click.

                When Vegeta wanted something, he got it, and he promptly hit redial again, only to get her voicemail. With a savage little grin, he continued to blow up her phone until she picked it up.

                “WHAT!?”

                “We can do this all day, woman. I have nothing better to do other than try to figure out what all of these employees are supposed to be doing, and while they’re making me a little nuts, it is fairly entertaining watching them run around without much aim.”

                “Fine then,” she snapped, “I’ll just turn off my fucking phone.” Click.

                “Bitch,” he muttered, before handing the phone back to the butler. What was his name again? “Bryan, I’ll need her address. I’m going to get a capsule car, and I expect it by the time I come back.”

                “Yes sir,” the butler responded, unable to contain a chuckle. He had it waiting for Vegeta when he returned, and handed it over with another laugh. “Good luck, sir, she’ll likely claw your eyes out just for showing up unannounced. She values her privacy, that one.”

                Vegeta took off once he was out of sight of any servants and shot towards the city, going to Super Saiyan when Trunks called his cell phone; he let the voicemail pick up since he couldn’t talk and fly at the same time, and he touched down in what looked like a bad part of South City.

                She lived _here_? Dear Kami, this was practically a slum. Vegeta felt a pang of guilt as he approached a building where several people were doing drugs right out in the open. Gods, how much did he pay this woman, anyway? Whatever it was, it obviously wasn’t enough for her to even live off of. He knocked on door nineteen sharply, and when the tiny blonde opened it, he wasn’t surprised to see her glare at him before slamming it shut in his face.

                He found the lock broken, though, and simply swung it back open. “Look, woman. I need you to—what the fresh fuck happened here?”

                “My apartment was broken into last night. Or didn’t you hear a word I fucking said when I called you this morning!?” She yelled at him, wiping at her renewed tears of frustration.

                “Did they steal anything or just ransack the joint?” Vegeta asked curiously. There was a whole lot of damage, but from what he could see, even the electronics were still there; they were just smashed and thrown about.

                “They were looking for something they’ll never find,” she replied bitterly as she threw another bag of trash on top of the pile in the corner. “Are you going to fuck off, or do I need to kick your ass?” She finally asked when the fact that he was just staring while she did all the work began to severely grind her nerves.                            

                “I’ll send someone to clean all of this up if you like. I need you back to work right now.”

                “No, I have to go hunt for a new apartment before they come back while I’m at home,” she snapped, moving back into her bedroom.

                Vegeta followed her, and when she scoffed at a piece of paper on her dresser, crumpled it, and threw it to the floor, he picked it up and read it. “’Nice panties.’ Well, isn’t that just fucking creepy?” He snorted.

                “And they always take a souvenir. Now please get out. Fuck this mess, let someone else sort through it.” She started shoving all of her clothing into two suitcases and zipped them up when she was done. Everything else she owned was in her subspace and she aimed to keep it that way. Travel light: that was her credo over the last decade.

                “So you need somewhere to stay.”

                “No shit, Sherlock. You want to recommend an apartment that I can actually afford on what you paid me? Oh, wait. That’s right. You’re Vegeta Briefs, you’ve never had to do something as demeaning as apartment hunting in your entire life.”

                “I’ll admit, I’ve never had to look for a place to live.” At least not on this planet, anyway… but none of his employees knew what he was. He looked around at the faded wallpaper and the cracked tiling on the floor. “How much **do** I pay you?” He asked curiously.

                “Not even close to what I should be making,” she snorted in contempt. “I’m leaving now,” she added as she set her house keys on the counter and walked out the door.

                Not sure what else to do, Vegeta followed her back out onto the street, where she ignored the cat calls from the druggies and stomped down the sidewalk to the corner store. “Watch my bags if you insist on following me,” she ordered him without a second thought.

                When she came back out, it was with a pop in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and she was puffing on it furiously, almost as if someone was going to snatch it right out of her hand. “No one’s going to steal it from you, onna,” Vegeta snorted.

                “I quit two years ago,” she replied flatly, “and I have a mind to smoke this whole fucking pack today, so I don’t want to hear a goddamned word about how bad they are for me.”

                “You won’t hear a word out of me, woman. So, answer me this. What should someone that does… whatever the hell it is you do… make yearly?”

                “Over eighty grand,” Usagi said without hesitation.

                “And I pay you?”

                “Twenty.”

                Vegeta was floored by that and just stared at her. “Why in the hell didn’t you just _say_ something, woman!? Damn, I would have given you a raise.”

                “Oh. _You_ would have given me a raise?” Usagi chuckled humorlessly. “The woman that does nothing but sit on her ass in front of a computer? Who doesn’t do any work anyway? Fucking prick,” she huffed, pitching her cigarette into the street.

                “Fine,” he amended. “Trunks would have given you a raise. But if what you were making was barely a pittance compared to what you should have been, why in the hell did you stay?”

                “Your wife hired me, I felt sorry for you when she died, and you never asked me any personal questions or bothered me at my work. You also never cared if I skipped out a little early; now I know how truly _oblivious_ you were to everything I’ve done over the years.”

                “I’ll pay you a hundred grand a year,” Vegeta said quickly, wanting nothing more than to get the hell back home and back in the gravity room where he belonged. After he’d had a cup of coffee, of course. “Plus ten percent for back pay every six months until I’m caught up to however much it is I owe you. Plus room and board at Capsule Corp. I have plenty of fucking room in that place as it is, I wouldn’t even notice you were there if you’d been living there all this time.”

                He smirked when she just gaped at him, but the astonished expression on her face didn’t last long as she lit another cigarette and studied him with the eyes of a business woman preparing to negotiate. “I want stock options and medical and dental coverage as well.”

                “Done. Anything else?”

                “My personal life is none of your concern. Anything I do that doesn’t have to do with my job is none of your fucking business, and if I tell you so, you won’t press for answers.”

                “So long as it doesn’t interfere with your work or bring drama into my home, I don’t give a shit what you do, woman.”

                Usagi stuck out her hand, and was hit with a tingle of desire when their hands clasped and they shook firmly. Despite what she thought about him being handed everything on a silver platter, his hands were extremely rough with callouses and spoke of a man that had worked his ass off his entire life. That thought was interrupted when she heard a noise that always threw chills down her spine, and she tackled Vegeta to the sidewalk. “DOWN!”


	2. Chapter 2

The sounds of gunfire filled the air as the convenience store she’d just come out of was sprayed with bullets, and Usagi did her best to shield the body beneath her as glass shattered behind them and rained down on their heads. Once the sound of peeling tires met her ears, she slowly rose up and studied her boss. “You alright?”

                Had she seriously just thrown herself on top of him? Like he _needed_ her protection? Vegeta tried not to laugh out loud at the idea as he studied the destruction and heard the wails of the people inside. “The fuck just happened?”

                “Drive-by,” Usagi said quickly, pushing off of him once she was sure he was fine. She darted into the store and dialed for an ambulance the moment she found two people shot. No one was dead at least, these people knew the sound of van doors rolling back just as well as she did, as well as the sound of automatic weapons being prepared for firing. Ripping off the hem of her skirt, the moon princess bound the arm of a man that was simply winged before getting his help in putting another man in the shock position. She quickly applied pressure to the wound in his shoulder and used just enough of her power to begin the healing process without causing a glow around him or herself, either. “You’re going to be just fine,” she told him gently. “Just relax and wait for the paramedics, ok?”

                The man nodded, clearly not panicking. “Not the first time got shot out here, sister. Hell, this don’t hurt near as much as the last one.”

                Usagi smiled at that; she was taking some of his pain in order to keep him from going into shock. “I’ve managed to take a few bullets, too,” she admitted with a snort. “It’s never a picnic, brother. Did you all piss off the Yakuza again?” She called over to the shopkeeper.

                “No, we paid them off. This was the Triads,” he replied sullenly. “Damned fucking gangs,” he started while he continued to bemoan the youth of the city and the rise of crime in their area. “Sailor Moon’s not even enough to keep them at bay anymore,” he finished with a sigh.

                “No, she’s not,” Usagi agreed sadly. She’d only done everything she could for this neighborhood, but with the gangs on the rise, she was fighting a losing battle. “She can only be in one place at a time, though.”

                “Too true, sister,” the wounded man interjected. “She’s the only one left trying in this fuckin’ city, we may as well give the poor girl some credit.”

                Usagi sighed with relief when the paramedics arrived just then, after the night she’d had and the lack of sleep after patrol, the break-in, Vegeta, and now this, she was simply drained and ready to break down crying. And speaking of Vegeta, he was doing an admirable field dressing on someone she’d missed, who had gotten cut up on the glass from the window. “Not bad,” she remarked lightly. “You get cut or hit?” When he huffed at her, she huffed right back. “You might be a world famous fighter, Mr. Briefs, but you’re not bullet proof.”

                “You alright, woman? You’re limping.”

                Usagi shook her head and tried not to grimace at the healing wound in her leg from the night before; she hadn’t forgotten his kindness, even though he hadn’t known it was her, and it was the main reason she was coming back to work for him. And raise or no, she would give the skin off her teeth for twenty-four-seven access to that med lab. “I’m fine. It’s from where I dove on you,” she said shortly.

                They helped the wounded into the ambulance, and Usagi breathed a sigh of relief when she found her luggage still untouched, sitting against the curb. “Thank the gods, the last thing I needed was to find all my panties in one of those vending machines,” she snorted.

                “Eh, I doubt your drawers are that cute, woman,” Vegeta snickered. However, he unzipped one of the suitcases and grinned at the sight of lace, silk, and what looked like a few thongs. “I take it back; they would have sold for a good amount,” he chuckled.

                “Asshole. I’m still mad at you, even if I’m coming back. Now get your pervy hands off my shit,” she snapped, zipping the suitcase back up. “Did you drive or take a cab?”

                “I brought a capsule car,” he said simply.

                “Wait a few blocks before you break out something that expensive,” she warned softly, nodding towards the sidewalk. “I don’t feel like getting shot at again.”

                Vegeta noted the way she was favoring her shoulder and snatched both of the suitcases from her before shrugging and letting her lead the way. “That sort of thing common out here? I heard you tell that man you’d been shot before.”

                “A few times.”

                “And you never called out of work in ten years.”

                The suspicion in his voice made her grit her teeth, and she shot him a scathing look. “No. I might have been loopy on painkillers, but I still showed up and got my job done.” Usagi lit another cigarette and exhaled smoke before pulling her pop out of her jacket pocket and cracking it open. “Blessed caffeine,” she sighed.

                “My thoughts exactly,” Vegeta replied dryly. “We need a new coffeepot, by the way. Where would we pick one up?”

                “We’ll swing by CapsuleMart on the way back. Let me guess, you got pissed and smashed it?” She snickered around her cigarette butt when he glared at her and refused to answer. “Hope you had fun delegating all the help this morning, too, dickwad. It’s a lot more than just sitting my ass on the computer all day, isn’t it?”

                “Alright, I get it, woman!” Vegeta snapped at her, drawing stares from some of the people on the street. “You worked your ass off, fine! Can we just move on and get you back to doing whatever the fuck it is you do all day!?”

                “You’re awfully bitchy, you know.”

                “I want my coffee,” he ground out.

                Usagi sighed, grabbed him by the sleeve of his blood-speckled shirt, and led him to a coffee shop a block down, where she ordered at the window.

                Vegeta tried to pay attention to what it was she was ordering, but what resulted in her handing him a single cup of coffee was an order that took nearly two full minutes and was highly detailed. He groaned a little when he took a sip and found it to be perfect. “I could kiss you for this, woman,” he mumbled into the white plastic cover on the cup.

                “Please don’t,” Usagi remarked. “Come on. One more block, then we should be in the clear.”

                In a much better mood now that caffeine was coursing through his system, Vegeta followed her wordlessly until they reached an empty lot. He threw down the capsule then and loaded her stuff into the backseat, where she dug around for a moment and pulled out a laptop and her cellphone. It had really been in her subspace, but he didn’t need to know that. “Good, you’re already getting to work.”

                “Someone’s got to fix your epic fuck-up of the day,” she answered crankily, lighting another smoke as she buckled up and opened the computer. The very first thing she did while she ignored Vegeta’s erratic driving was link up with the brokers, check the stocks, and take care of all that mess before shooting the deal Trunks’s way via email. “There, that’s done for now,” she sighed.

                Next, she ordered a new coffeemaker from the nearest CapsuleMart, along with a few items for herself, and put it all on the house account. “And your coffeemaker is ready for pickup. I ordered a couple things for me, such as bed linens. I’ll dock it from my check.”

                “Woman, get whatever the hell you need for your room and just put it on the account. I didn’t see you grab any toiletries. Order those, too.”

                Usagi looked at him for a long moment before sighing and nodding, too tired to argue anymore. She typed for a few more minutes, picked out the things she absolutely needed, and finally leaned back in the seat, fighting sleep.

                “You commuted all this way?”

                “Not always. Only lived in that apartment for a couple months.”

                Vegeta remembered something she’d said before and his hands clenched the steering wheel. “So who’s after you? And what are they looking for that they’ll never find?”

                “That’s personal, Mr. Briefs,” she replied professionally.

                “Will they come looking for you at Capsule Corp?”

                Usagi sighed and nodded after a moment. “I’d lie, but… yes. It’s likely.”

                Vegeta grinned at that and nodded. “Good. I’ve been itching for a fight lately.”

                “Dumbass. Did you hear a word I said about not being bulletproof? These people don’t fuck around. They don’t play games, and they’ll kill either of us at the drop of a hat. Capsule Corp’s security system is state of the art, though, so I’m not as worried as I would be otherwise. Oh, there,” she said quickly, pointing at the CapsuleMart. “Just pull around front and they’ll load it up.” Then her phone rang. “I need to take this.” She cut it on and eyed Vegeta for a moment, though. “Can you handle letting them load the car without me holding your little hand?”

                “Woman, you’re pushing it.”

                “You deserve to be pushed, and you’re lucky I didn’t knock your ass out when you showed up at my place!” She snapped.

                “Usagi!” Trunks’s voice rang out from her phone, “I can tell Father’s in one of his chipper moods. And so are you,” he added with a laugh.

                “I haven’t slept in nearly two days, Trunks. You get my email?”

                “Yup. Everything’s in order. I printed everything between classes, signed them, and faxed them to you and the brokers.”

                “Awesome. Congrats. You’re a millionaire again.”

                “Usa… how much do we pay you?” Trunks asked curiously.         

                “That’s rich, you know. The first time my salary’s come up in over eight years, and it comes up twice in one day.”

                “I took care of it, brat,” Vegeta huffed, climbing back in the car. “We’re nearly home. When are you going to come back for a damned visit anyway, boy?”

                Usagi tried not to smile a little at that; after working for their family for years, Vegeta’s one shining character trait was his obvious love for his genius son. And she’d tried to give the asshole a break since Bulma had died as well; he was obviously very lonely, rarely had visitors, and spent all his time brooding in that training room.

                “I’ll try for next weekend, Father. Ok? Exams should be done by that Friday. Usagi, take care of the old man for me, would you? And keep him on his toes. He spends far too much time alone.”

                Usagi snorted and chuckled, apparently they were on the same wave-length. “First I have to fix what I’m assuming is a clusterfuck of hired help at the compound, my dear. And speaking of which…” They were pulling in just then, and Usagi climbed out of the car the moment it had stopped, telling Trunks goodbye quickly before barking orders at the landscapers.

                Vegeta just watched it all with interest. Kami, that woman could organize and give orders like a Saiyan general! He merely followed her as she continued yelling at people as she walked; she wasn’t yelling unkindly, she was merely yelling for the sake of volume as she was constantly on the move, and that was one thing she never stopped doing; moving.

                The maids were given their instructions for the day, but the head maid at least had had enough brains to get started on most of the cleaning in the house, and the butler and a few technicians were given what few instructions that they needed as well.

                “That was impressive,” Vegeta allowed as he set up the coffeemaker.

                “That’s only the first hour of my day. But thank you. I took over the delegation of the household stuff when Mrs. Briefs passed away, and I’m telling you right now, that first week was fucking insane. I had no clue how that woman did what she did and still managed to stay so upbeat all the time.”

                “Caffeine and stellar sex,” Vegeta replied flatly, missing his assistant’s blush at the comment. “There, woman. It’s set up. Now show me how you make my coffee.”

                “You can try and follow it, but I’d be surprised if you figured it out.” Usagi took her place at the counter and started working at the coffeegrinder, and once the beans were at the right consistency, she dumped them in the filter and started adding things to it. “There, all done,” she sighed as it started brewing. “Give it five or ten minutes, and do me a favor.”

                “What?”

                “Wake me in three hours, or whenever Trunks or a broker calls. I haven’t slept in two days and I’m about to fall over.”

                “Wake yourself, woman.”

                Usagi glared at him and punched him in the arm. “You fucking owe me and you know it. Wake me in three hours, and have a cup of coffee waiting for me.”

                Vegeta snorted and shook his head. “You’ve got a lot of balls, woman.”

                “Someone in this house has to have them, Mr. Briefs. Two creams, one pack of sugar-free sweetener, please,” she replied emotionlessly as she walked into the day room and crashed onto the couch.

##################

                It was dark when she woke, and she cursed his name vehemently as she stomped into the kitchen after what was likely twelve hours of sleep.

                “Eat,” Vegeta grunted from the table, pushing a cup of coffee her way. He’d sensed by monitoring her ki that she’d been about to wake, and had fixed her a plate of takeout that he’d had Bryan order, once he’d learned that Usagi usually delegated the menu to the cooks first thing in the morning. He’d sent them home early with full pay, had monitored her phone calls, and had listened to his son chastise him like a small child for upsetting what was apparently the most valuable employee that had ever worked for Capsule Corp.

                She’d never stolen so much as a penny from them, had never given herself a raise despite the power to do so, but at the same time had made sure that the other employees got an evaluation and a raise once every six months. She took care of all the stocks and meetings, set them up for people that needed to attend them, and showed up for them herself if no one else did. Essentially, she was doing the job that Bulma had once done—minus the inventing— and Vegeta had even admitted a few times that it wasn’t an easy task.

“Everything’s been taken care of,” he informed her. “Trunks decided that you should get some rest. A room’s been prepared for you in the family wing.” She made a face at that, and he shook his head. “You’re under my roof now, woman. And if someone’s after you, your room will be fairly close to mine, just in case some dumbass actually tries to break in and hurt you. Besides… after this morning, and a lengthy bitching from my son, I’m pretty sure it would be too much trouble to replace you if you got shot up in the middle of the night.”

“I’m so fucking flattered,” she grumbled into her coffee cup. “Ugh… gods, your coffee tastes like shit.”

“Another reason not to let you get shot up,” he replied with a smirk. “Now eat something and get back in bed. The boy informed me that tomorrow is a long day.”

“Shit, the Omura account,” she groaned. “I needed to have my suit cleaned and pressed for that meeting, and I was going to have Bryan send it out and have it delivered in the morning.”

“Wear something else.”

Usagi glared up at him as she yanked over a box of Chinese food and opened a pair of chopsticks. “You saw my suitcases, Mr. Briefs. That business suit is the only one I have. It’s my taking names and kicking asses suit, and I’ve never blown a deal while wearing it. Fuuuck. I left my shoes at the apartment.”

Vegeta watched with a touch of amusement as the still-groggy woman’s head smacked on the table with an audible thump, and she started swearing eloquently in Japanese, cursing him, the Yakuza, the Triads, and everything else in existence. “Order what you need for the meeting, including a second ass-kicking suit, and just have it delivered in the morning.”

Usagi nodded, knowing it was the only option. “That first, and then I have to go out for a few hours.”

“Why the hell for!? You just got here, didn’t you?”

“Personal.”

Which meant “none of your damned business” in Usagi-speak, he was quickly learning. “You’ll take your cell phone.” It wasn’t a request, it was an order, and he matched her glare when she looked up at him.

“I’m off the clock, Mr. Briefs. And if you’re going to start ordering me around like I’m some sort of servant, you’ll find me quitting this job, raise or no raise. You didn’t give a shit about what I did for the past ten years, so don’t start now. Understand me?”

“Fine. But let’s get this straight, onna. You get yourself shot, I’ll kick your ass.”

Usagi shrugged and dug into her food; she needed a lot of energy for going out on patrol that night, and the first place she was going to start was where those damned Triads had shot up the C-store down the block from her old apartment.

Vegeta watched her quietly as they both ate, and noted the intelligence shining in her eyes as she obviously thought about something extremely serious; they were sharp and focused, almost like his own eyes got when he was focusing on some sort of battle plan, and he couldn’t help but wonder what would make her look like that. But she’d stated it was personal, and he felt he’d pushed her limits more than enough for one day. Whatever it was, it likely had something to do with the Yakuza hounding her for whatever it was they wanted, and she was possibly planning some sort of retaliation.

Or not. But that’s what he would be doing in her shoes, and she’d already proven to have quite the spine despite the submissive, cowed demeanor he’d witnessed from her over the last ten years when they’d rarely interacted.

                “Be careful,” he grunted when she finally rose from the table and bid him goodnight.

                “I’ll be back in a few hours,” she said simply. “And if we’re going to be housemates you need to get used to this sort of thing. I work in the morning, sleep in the evening, and stay up most of the night.”

                “And when you get stuck working in the evening?”

                “Then I sleep on Saturdays,” she snorted, unable to keep her lips from twitching when he chuckled. “And thank you for supper, by the way. I think that’s the first meal I’ve eaten in months that hasn’t come out of a vending machine or a C-store freezer. It was a joke,” she added hurriedly when his mouth turned down in a frown.

                Vegeta continued to frown behind her back when she bid him goodnight; if she’d been joking, than he was a Namek in disguise. Damn it all to hell, Bulma would be kicking his ass to Snake Way and back for the way this woman had been living, and he really had no one to blame but himself. “Forgive me, Bulma,” he whispered into the hand he was dragging over his lips. “I’ve done a pretty shitty job taking care of your legacy.”

#####################

                “Hey there, brother.” Sailor Moon smiled down at the man she’d treated in the C-store and winked at him when he opened his eyes.

                “Little sister,” he chuckled. “I’d thought it was you when they told me my shoulder done healed up some already. I didn’t say nothing, though. We got your back out here—us folks that hate the gangs.”

                “I know,” she replied softly, “I came to finish the healing and if you’re willing, get some information.” Sailor Moon placed her hands on his shoulder then and filled him with her silver light, and when she pulled away he was completely mended. “Your name?”

                “Charlie. What you wanna know, little sister?”

                “The Triads and the Yakuza. I want to know everything you know in regards to location, manpower, and any safehouses they may have in our area. I’m taking this damned neighborhood back.”

                “Then you’d better be willing to kill, girl. If you want them gone, you gotta stop being all nice and handing them over to the cops. They own the cops, they have for years, and they just get loosed after a couple days,” Charlie informed her seriously.

                Moon nodded and sighed; she’d known this was coming, but she’d been dreading it all the same. “Whatever needs to be done,” she whispered. She’d do this for the kids and the other innocents growing up and living in the same conditions she’d lived in for years, she would kill these men so that those innocents wouldn’t be killed in turn, just for happening to live in the wrong damned neighborhood. “Tell me where to go, Charlie.”

#################

                “I thought I told you to _call,_ moon woman.” Then Vegeta saw all the blood and moved quickly into the med lab, immediately easing her back onto the table she was sitting on. “Please tell me the other guy looks worse, woman.”

                “The other guys are dead,” she whispered, handing over the needle and thread still attached to the same thigh that had gotten shot the night before. “All of them,” she added with a sigh. “At least that cell, anyway.”

                “I thought you didn’t kill people?” Vegeta asked as he took over stitching her up. “You just tied everyone up and left them to the cops.”

                “An informant decided to school me on my naivety this evening; apparently they all _own_ the cops. I’ve been tying up bad men for years, only for them to hit the streets again a couple days later. I’m a big fucking _joke_ ,” she added bitterly, unable to keep a few tears from leaving her eyes.

                Vegeta shook his head and patted her leg in an awkward gesture of comfort. “I have a… friend. If you could call him that. Closest thing to a friend I’ve ever had since my mate passed, anyway. And he has the same stupid ideals about sparing lives as you do. It was just as hard on him when he realized that sometimes you have to kill in order to protect the greater good. You’re not a joke, woman. You just made a mistake and you learned from it. You need to throw up?” He asked knowingly.            

                “I did on my way over here,” she replied softly, rolling to give him access to the stab wound on her side while she went over her plans for the next morning. There was no way the crystal would heal her enough by the time her meeting came around, and if she didn’t stay the hell away from Vegeta as much as possible, he was bound to put two and two together and figure out her identity.

                “Looks like this one hit a kidney, Moon,” Vegeta said almost conversationally.

                “It’ll heal. Just stitch it up, please,” she whimpered, doing her damnedest to ignore the pain radiating through her back. Now that he’d pointed it out, it only hurt even worse, and she wanted nothing more than to turn around and punch him in the nuts for it. It had been hard enough getting to Capsule Corp without collapsing from the pain of her injuries and the blood loss, and now after being so proud of her toughness, she was about to break down and cry like a pussy in front of him.

                “Tell you what, woman. I’ve got something better,” Vegeta offered. “Sit up, stay put, and try not to bleed out. I’ll be back in a minute.” The prince left the med lab and hurried to his room where he snagged a senzu from his stash in his bedside table, while he marveled over how ridiculously tough the woman downstairs was. “I’m amazed she isn’t Saiyan,” he snorted.

                “Here, chew and swallow,” he ordered, popping the senzu in her mouth before she could comment. “That’ll heal everything up pretty quickly. Damn, woman, you got fucked up.”

                “Most of it’s not my blood,” she assured him, “but at least I managed not to get shot this time, right?” Sailor Moon sighed happily as she felt the sharp pain in her back fade right along with all of her other injuries, and actually smiled when she realized she wouldn’t have to worry about avoiding him in the morning. She’d be right as rain by the time her meeting came around and she had the deal with Omura-san. “Thank you for this,” she said sincerely, giving him her brightest smile.

                Vegeta actually returned the expression slowly, feeling as if he was engulfed in a wonderful light. And all it took was just a smile from her to make him feel better than he had in years. “Anytime, Moon. If you want to clean up, there’s a shower through there.”

                She chuckled and nodded. “I know. I’ve used it.”

                “Of course you have. Fucking mooch,” Vegeta joked. “I’ll go get you a towel.”

                Climbing in the shower, Usagi detransformed and stripped, hiding her clothes in her subspace so Vegeta wouldn’t find them and recognize them as what she’d worn earlier. She was rinsing the blood from her hair when she heard his voice from the other side of the curtain. “I brought you a couple more senzu beans for you to use later, just in case you don’t think you can make it back here in time. I’ll try and get some more in the meantime.”

                “Thank you,” Usagi said, barely able to compute his sudden kindness compared to the way he’d been treating her secret identity. “Um… I had to detransform,” she said softly, hoping like hell that he couldn’t recognize her voice over the running of the shower. When she was Sailor Moon, even her voice and scent were glamoured so as to protect her true identity, but she knew he had excellent hearing. “Would you mind closing your eyes?”

                Vegeta did as she asked, fighting the urge to tear back the shower curtain to see not only who she really was, but what was very likely the most perfect body he’d ever laid eyes on. “Towel,” he grunted, holding it out near the edge of the curtain.

                Usagi poked her head around the curtain once the water was off and was grateful to see his eyes shut tightly as she slipped it out of his hands and ducked back out of sight to dry off. “So much better,” she sighed happily to herself. “Moon Crystal Power, Make Up,” she added softly, transforming once more. Sailor Moon grinned when she stepped out and found him with his eyes still closed, and she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you for not looking.”

                Vegeta blinked open his eyes and felt his face flush a little, his hand going to where she’d kissed him. It felt like her lips had branded his skin, and he fought down the urge to drag her up against him and find out if her mouth would have the same effect on his own as it had on his cheek. “Welcome. Be more careful next time,” he added gruffly.

                Not fooled, she just smiled and tipped him a nod as she climbed up to the window. “Thanks again, hopefully I won’t have to bother you again anytime soon.”

                Then she was gone, and Vegeta stared at the empty window a minute before heading back upstairs. He ran into Usagi in the hallway, dressed in her robe, fresh from the shower, and caught her before she could fall on her ass. “Sorry,” he grunted. “How long have you been back?”

                “About an hour,” she replied smoothly. It wasn’t a lie, she _had_ been there about an hour. “I’m heading to bed now for a power nap since I have to be up in a few more hours anyway.”

                “Same,” Vegeta grunted. “Night, woman.”

                “Night, Mr. Briefs.”


	3. Chapter 3

On the outside, Vegeta looked his usual, scowly, cranky self. But on the inside, his eyes were about to pop out of his head, and his beast was purring silently in appreciation at the sight of the woman leaning against the kitchen counter.

The strappy low-cut top was low enough to show off just a hint of cleavage, there was a professional-looking ladies’ black jacket slung over one of the kitchen chairs, and with the way she was leaning over the counter, he caught a glimpse of the tops of her thigh-high nylons beneath the skirt that came to an inch above her knee. Pearls accentuated it all, her hair was braided neatly to show off her long neck, and frankly, Vegeta had to admit that she was stunning. “That’s your ass-kicking suit?”

                “Yup,” Usagi said curtly as she continued to fix her coffee. “I take it you approve,” she added dryly when she caught him still looking after thirty seconds.

                “I’m sure plenty of men would beg to have their asses kicked by you while you’re wearing that thing,” Vegeta allowed without emotion, shoving his way in front of her to fix his own morning brew. “When’s the meeting?”

                “Why? You want to go?” She teased, unable to help herself. Just the mere _thought_ of Mr. Briefs at one of these meetings was… _beyond_ laughable.

                “Kami, no. I was just wondering if I would be required to field the endless stupid questions from the help like I did yesterday.”

                God, he was such an ass! “Don’t worry,” she said coldly, “I already made my lists for the day and left them for Bryan on the kitchen table. You shouldn’t be disturbed at your… work. Or whatever the hell it is you do all day out there.” At that she turned to him and lifted a golden brow. “What _do_ you do all day out there anyway?”

                “I’m a fighter. I train. You know that, woman.”

                “Yeah, but… I’ve been inside your training room, and there’s nothing in there. Just the console and then those thingies on the ceiling.”

                “I don’t need weights or any of those sissy things if that’s what you’re implying, woman. Just mind your own business, and I’ll mind mine,” Vegeta warned her softly.              

                “Alright, then. I meant no offense, Mr. Briefs. I was merely curious, is all.” Usagi picked her jacket up from the back of a chair and slung it over her shoulder after pouring herself a second cup of coffee and chugging it. “If Trunks calls, please inform him that I’m in a meeting and that I should return by ten or so if the deal goes smoothly.”

                “Where will you be?”

                “At the Black Box Restaurant, why?” Usagi asked in surprise. Did he actually give a shit and wanted to know in case she didn’t show up?

                Vegeta simply nodded. “That’s close to the slums. Be careful.”

                Holy shit! He really _did_ care!? Usagi nodded and gave him a soft, genuine smile. “Thank you, Mr. Briefs. I’ll call you when the meeting’s finished.”

                “Don’t forget to.”

##################

                Usagi had the taxi drop her off so she could walk a little ways and clear her head before the meeting, and couldn’t help but stop and look through the arch in front of the shrine down on Cherry St. Sure enough, there she was, and the princess felt a pang in her heart at the sight of her former best friend. Not that Rei would know her anyway, were Usagi to wander in and introduce herself.

                And she wouldn’t, either. She wouldn’t risk there being some sort of wave of déjà vu that would possibly spur Rei’s memories into returning for her. She worried about that with Rei especially, since she was psychic.

A normal life. That’s what they’d all wanted, and after Chaos had been resealed, it was the least that Usagi could do for her Senshi after she’d been forced to kill them all.

                But it was a lonely existence, she missed them dearly, and she couldn’t help but checking in on them from time to time, even though they were totally oblivious to her presence or identity. Rei at the shrine, Ami and Hotaru at the hospital, Mako at the bakery, Mina’s and Michiru’s concerts, and Haruka’s races… the only one that knew was Setsuna, and she was stuck at the Gates as always.

                “I miss you, Rei-chan,” Usagi whispered towards Rei’s distant figure before turning back to the sidewalk and continuing her journey into the business district.

                The Black Box wasn’t very busy as early as seven in the morning, but it would likely be a buzz of business meetings and casual lunches between coworkers by noon. It also served breakfast for the early risers such as herself, and the businessmen on their way to the office or the stock floors.

                “Tsukino-san!”

                Usagi spun towards a table behind her and gave a little bow as she smiled. “Omura-san, so good to see you,” she greeted the elderly Japanese gentleman.

                “Stunning as always, Tsukino-san,” Omura greeted her, lifting her hand to kiss it once she’d made her way over to him and a couple men that worked for him. He swiftly made introductions to the other two before offering her a seat. “Breakfast first?”

                “Hai, arigato. I’m famished.” Of course, she couldn’t eat like she always did during these types of meetings, or nothing would get done, so she ordered eggs, toast and some fruit while the men ordered something a little heartier and coffee all around. Usagi would grab a proper breakfast once she returned to Capsule Corp and changed out of this suit; the skirt had always been a little higher than she liked, and the top a little too low cut, but it never failed to get results.

                “Here,” Usagi offered, cracking open her briefcase and removing a stack of papers. “While we wait for the food, Omura-san. I trust you’ll find everything in order?”

                Omura glanced at each paper and nodded before passing them to the man on his right, who donned a pair of reading glasses and began to read them carefully. “They seemed in order to me, Tsukino-san. Tell me, how has Trunks been doing lately?”

                “Oh, Trunks is fine, thanks for asking,” Usagi replied with a chuckle, sliding back a little as their order arrived. “He’s such a smart boy; a couple more years and you’ll be dealing with him instead of me.”

                “I must say, I’d much rather look at you than at your employer, no matter how renowned he is as a playboy,” Omura chuckled. “And how are you, Usagi-san? I hope you’re well.”

                “Oh, just fine, thank you. Working all the time as always,” she replied between bites. “I assume you’re doing the same?”

                “Of course, but I’ve been thinking of passing the torch to someone younger and more fit for this sort of thing. This old body can’t take the stress of such a rigorous business schedule or the headache that does with it.”

                “Trust me, I feel your pain, sir. And I’m still young. Will I be dealing with your oldest when and if you retire?”

                “No, my son has no interest in the business, regretfully. My oldest grandson, however… he shows an awful lot of promise and has a good head for this sort of thing. I’ll bring him during our next meeting. He’s about your age…” Omura winked and smiled. “Maybe you two will hit it off and he’ll finally take you off the market?”

                Usagi laughed at that, the sound ringing out clean and pure through their section of the restaurant. “He must be something if you think he could ever drag me away from my job, sir!”

                “Oh, you can’t blame me for trying, Usagi. One such as lovely as yourself should be married and having children, not slaving away at this sort of thing and wasting the best years of your life. I have it on good authority that you haven’t taken a vacation in nearly a decade. Even I take one every year.” Omura neatly stacked the plates as they finished and called for another round of coffee while his employee handed over the papers for him to sign.

                “I’ve been thinking about a vacation,” Usagi allowed. “Maybe over Christmas. It’s only a few weeks away, and I am starting to feel a little burned out lately.”

                “Maybe you could spend some time with family, dear girl,” he suggested, putting on his own reading glasses as he began to signing, dating and initialing paperwork.

                Usagi smiled and shook her head, but the smile was false. Her family didn’t remember her either, and she wanted to keep it that way. It would only make them targets for her enemies. “Iie, Omura-san. No family.”

                “Gomen… I didn’t know. Maybe just yourself then? You could vacation somewhere warm, relax on a beach and torment young men with the sight of you sunning yourself near the water.”

                “Ah, now _that_ sounds more like my thing,” Usagi sighed, seriously thinking about taking a break for once in her life. The thing with the gangs was beginning to take its toll on her, and she would just about eat glass for a single day off. “Maybe… maybe I’ll do that,” she said softly. “Yes, I’ll take a vacation,” she added more firmly. “I’m sure Trunks won’t mind if I’m gone during his Christmas break from university, since there’s never a ton of paperwork over the holidays.”

                Omura smiled approvingly. “Good girl. In fact, I have a beachhouse in the southern part of the country that I only use in the summer. If you’d like, I’ll have one of my men bring over the key and the information when they bring the copies of the paperwork for you. You’d have it all to yourself and wouldn’t be disturbed.” He couldn’t help but smiling at her when she beamed; he’d always found her happiness infectious.

                “Thank you so much, Omura-san! Normally I’d argue that I wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience, but the idea of some actual time away sounds just… divine,” she sighed wistfully.

                Passing the paperwork back over to one of the men with him, Omura stood and moved so his men could get out of the booth. “I’m pleased that I could finally con you into _anything,_ ” he chuckled, giving her a tight hug when she stood. “Just call me with the details of your vacation and I’ll have them taken care of, Usagi-san. Maybe in the meantime, you can find yourself a handsome young man to join you?”

                Usagi snickered and shook her head, but returned the hug; it was a shame that Omura was retiring, he was a lot less stuffy than most of the other businessmen she dealt with from day to day. She’d miss dealing with him, but maybe his grandson would turn out to be like his grandfather. “Probably not going to happen, but I’ll let you know if someone winds up accompanying me.”

                Once Usagi managed to get out of the Black Box, an idea occurred to her and she grinned a little as she dug in her purse for her credit card. She’d just gotten a raise to five times more than what she’d been making, and her first ten percent bonus—ten thousand dollars—was coming to her in less than a week. “Mina would be clawing my eyes out if I didn’t spend at least half of it on myself,” she snickered. “Fuck it. I’m going shopping.”

                She checked her watch and found it to be only eight-thirty, and the shopping district was only a few blocks over. Closer to the slums than she’d like, but the higher-end shopping district would require hailing a cab and wasting nearly an hour in traffic just to get there. Besides, she would rather spread the wealth among those that needed the custom, and not a bunch of shops that made more than enough money to pay their bills.

                She made good time despite wearing heels, and by the time she was done with the first store, she had a new bathing suit for the beach, just in case she decided to go, a few new casual outfits and some jeans, and a few new pairs of shoes. “Heh… I need jewelry,” she chuckled. “Ah, my favorite thing to shop for.”

                Usagi found a discreet place to tuck all her bags in her subspace, and was grateful that she’d freed her hands when she entered the jewelry store… and walked right in on a robbery. “Oh, you’ve got to be fucking _kidding_ me!” She huffed, slowly putting her hands in the air when a masked man pointed a gun her way.

                The woman behind the counter—a woman she’d known well growing up, but didn’t remember her, either—gave her a sympathetic look and a half-shrug. “Lock the door behind you,” the robber ordered, “and turn the sign to closed.”

                “Probably should have done that to begin with, don’t you think?” Usagi replied tartly, unable to help herself as she did as she was told. She was rewarded with a blow to the face when she turned back around, but rather than cry and whine, she grit her teeth after her initial yell and growled at the man. “You get that one for free, asshole.”

                “And what’s the next one going to cost me?” He snorted. “Get behind the counter and help the other girl fill the bags,” he commanded, giving her a shove towards the redhead.

                “Just do as he says,” the other woman hissed under her breath, handing Usagi an empty shopping bag to dump some jewelry into. “He’ll go away if we do it.”

                “Naru, I want you to trust me,” Usagi whispered when the man turned to draw the blinds. Something else he should have done first, too. Fucking amateurs.

                “You know my name?” Naru asked in quiet surprise.

                “I know a lot of things. Now… get down behind the counter and stay out of sight. Moon Crystal Power Make-Up,” she breathed, leaping over the counter as she transformed.

                The robber caught a boot to the face as he turned, followed by a swift disarming that even Haruka would have had trouble following. The movement spoke of skill and plenty of experience in taking guns from people, and Sailor Moon had the barrel pointed at his head before he could even blink. “I lied. You didn’t get that one for free. Sorry,” she said nonchalantly. “Now… are you Triad, or Yakuza?”

                “N—Neither,” the robber stammered. He jumped when she reached out, but she only yanked his mask off his face.

                Usagi gaped and huffed at the sight of him. “Kami, no wonder you’re such a fucking amateur. What are you? Fifteen? Sixteen, maybe? Naru, call the cops,” she ordered without turning.

                “Hey, I’m seventeen, damn it!” He protested.

                “Yeah, and so fucking grown, too. Robbing stores and punching women in the face. What would your mother say, boy? Come on, stand up.” Usagi grabbed him by the collar and shoved him over to a far wall before handing the gun over to Naru. “Keep it pointed at him, and if he tries to run, shoot him in the knee. Where’s your surveillance equipment?”

                “In the back,” the red-head replied, in more than a little shock at the way the tables had suddenly turned. “Police are on the way. I hit the silent alarm.”

                “Good.” Sailor Moon stepped into the office and easily located the tape recorder, where she took the tape that was still in the VCR and put it in her subspace. “Alright, Naru. I trust you can handle this yourself. I don’t like fucking with the cops.”

                “Yeah, I got it, Sailor Moon. And thank you.”

                “Not a problem.” She went out the back and used her Senshi strength to get to the roof, where she travelled several blocks by leaping from the tops of stores before dropping into an alleyway and detransforming. Her cell phone was ringing in her purse the moment she was back in her ass-kicking suit, and Usagi answered it with a huff. “Yeah?”

                “You sound out of breath, woman. And I thought you said you’d call?” Vegeta snarled on the other end of the line. “I have better things to do that babysit your irresponsible ass!”

                “Explain when I… get there,” she replied, still gasping for air a little after her dash across the city rooftops. “And don’t call me… irresponsible… asshole.”

                “You hurt?” he grunted, making sure to keep any and all worry out of his voice.

                “Nothing I can’t handle,” she replied simply, righting her suit as she stepped onto the curb and hailed a cab. “I’m on my way back now.”

                Usagi hung up and relaxed in the back of the cab. Or least tried to, anyway, and she was greeted by a fuming Vegeta the moment she walked in the door. “I’m sorry I didn’t call,” she began, “but there was—“

                “What happened?” He said shortly. His anger fled at the sight of the cut over her cheekbone and the spreading bruise, but he continued to scowl as he approached her and studied the injury with his eyes and fingertips. “Who hit you, woman?”

                “A robber,” Usagi replied shortly, fighting the urge to lean into the warm touch that was sending a shiver down her spine. God, how in the hell could a man have hands that rough and still be so gentle? Ugh… she was _not_ attracted to him, damn it. Sure, he’d helped her out as Sailor Moon a couple times, but he was still Vegeta, and still a prick. “I got finished with the meeting early and decided to actually spend a little money on myself for once. Looks like I learned my lesson,” she said flippantly, moving around him to fix herself a cup of coffee and grab something out of the freezer to pop in the microwave.

                “I hope he got one to match, woman.” Vegeta’s eyebrows raised when her eyes glinted with a hint of cold humor, and he wondered if she actually _had_ kicked the robber’s ass. She certainly had enough grit and balls to do something like that, she’d proven it the day before.

                “I had help. Sailor Moon showed up after I kicked him in the face, and she got the drop on him. “Kami… that robber was just a baby, Mr. Briefs. Seventeen years old… not much younger than Trunks. What is this damned city coming to?” Usagi sighed mournfully. “Sailor Moon nearly shot him until she saw how young he was.”

                “Sailor Moon needs to stop being such a forgiving bleeding heart,” Vegeta snorted in contempt. “The cops’ll release him in a few days and he’ll be right back out on the streets.”

                “He was a **_kid_** , Mr. Briefs! Just a kid! Probably broke as hell, out of a job and hungry! He was skinny as a beanstalk!” Usagi yelled, brandishing her chopsticks in his direction as she sat her meal on the table.

                “No excuse,” Vegeta replied without sympathy. “I was getting by on my own when I was a hell of a lot younger than him, and I kept myself fed just fine.” Never mind that he’d been blowing up planets under Frieza’s employ, but that had been a different time and different circumstances. At the age of ten, Vegeta would have been able to feed, clothe, and find shelter for himself under any circumstances; he’d been dropped in the wilderness on several occasions during his training as a child, forced to fend for himself for days.

                “Well, all the poor kids in Japan aren’t **_you_** , Mr. Briefs!” Usagi shouted. “Thank Kami for that, or I’d fucking kill myself if there was actually more than one prick walking around that was as arrogant and self-righteous as yourself!”

                “Yay! I see you two are getting along!”

                Usagi and Vegeta broke the death glare they were locked in, and turned to find a long-haired Trunks grinning at them from the doorway.

                “He started it!”

                “She started it!”

                Trunks burst into laughter as they pointed at each other and yelled those accusations at the same time, but when he spotted the bruise on Usagi’s face, his smile melted into a hard frown directed at his father, his blue eyes glittering with suppressed rage. “What happened to her face?” He asked softly.

                Eyes widening in shock, Usagi quickly shook her head when she understood his meaning. “No, Trunks. There was a robbery in South City, and I sort of walked in on it, got smart with the robber, and got hit for my trouble. His face looks worse than mine, though,” she added with a self-satisfied smirk. “A man only hits me once.”

                “Oh.” He relaxed a little at that and shot an apologetic glance to his father, who was glaring at him for even implying that he’d hit their assistant.

                “You’re early, boy,” Vegeta interrupted. “Don’t you have school?”

                “The only exams I have left are online,” Trunks answered smoothly. “Why, Father? You didn’t miss me?”

                Vegeta huffed and turned away to refill his coffee cup, but secretly he was very pleased to see his son. It was a little lonely, training by himself, and he’d missed Trunks more than he’d miss a willing, moving punching bag. Not that he’d ever admit it, though.

                “Hey, Dad… now that I’m home, we could double team Goku and Goten…” Trunks suggested with a chuckle.

                “You’re on,” Vegeta said quickly, barely suppressing an eager grin as he chugged his coffee and grabbed his towel from the back of the chair. “Go get dressed and I’ll meet you there, boy.”

                “Well, that sure changed his tune,” Usagi snorted, dumping her empty microwave container in the trash and her chopsticks in the sink. “Thanks, Trunks. That man has been insufferable.”

                The demi shrugged and smiled. “It’s a gift, what can I say? Distract him with the prospect of a good fight, and Father’s gold. So… how did the Omura meeting go?”

                “Oh, fine. Omura-san informed me that he’s retiring, so I guess this’ll be the last meeting. A shame, too, he’s such a nice man. He offered me his beachhouse for a week over the holidays when he mentioned that I should take a vacation.”

                Trunks perked up at that and nodded emphatically; he’d only been telling her the same thing for years. “You should, Usa. Go on ahead and do it, and I’ll take care of everything here.”

                Usagi slowly shook her head, feeling a wash of guilt at the thought of leaving, if only for a week. The Christmas season was the one time of the year that she could work as Sailor Moon almost full-time since there was hardly any business to take care of for Capsule Corp. “I’ll—I’ll think about it, Trunks. But I have a lot of stuff to take care of over the holiday.”

                He shook his head and gave her a quick hug, half-tempted to pull a Vegeta and order and demand that she do it or he’d kick her ass. That wasn’t his style, though. He’d just bug the shit out of her and try to charm his way into getting her to take a damned break for once in her life. “Well, if you decide to go just tell me so I can handle whatever paperwork’s left that week, ok?”

                “Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna go change and get started on another deal. You go play with your father and keep him out of my fucking hair.”

                Usagi sighed happily once she changed clothes, and when she was sure that Trunks and Vegeta were gone, she took a special laptop from her subspace, a computer that had been combined with Ami’s older mini-computer. It had taken her a year to figure out how to work the damned thing, but once she had, as well as connected it to the internet, she could get just about any information on anyone that she wanted to. “So… let’s find you little bastards,” she whispered to herself, beginning a search for the Triad’s headquarters in South City.

                The syndicate members that she’d killed last night hadn’t given her much information, but what little they’d divulged— along with their body language when she’d asked certain questions—gave her enough to work with.

                Usagi let her searches run while she tended to the cut on her face and worked on her normal laptop, exchanging emails with several business partners and possible clients. After three hours, her Senshi computer beeped and she checked it. The computer had determined from her info that there were a dozen possible locations where the Triads could be holing up on a regular basis, and she saved the resulting file to the hard drive for later use.

She’d go out tonight… and when she did, she was cleaning house.

#######################

“Coffee?”

                “Are you blind?” Usagi groaned into her arms, where her head was resting, face pointed down at the table.

                “I was asking if you wanted any,” Vegeta snorted. That’s what he got for trying to be civil; he should have known better than to even ask.

                She cracked open her eyes and turned her head a little to look at him in surprise. “Yes, thank you,” she answered sleepily. “Sorry… it was a long night.”

Fuck, it had been a long _week_ , running recon on all of those locations that her computer had given her, on top of her work there at Capsule Corp. But seven days of running the rooftops had paid off; she’d found a large cell of Triads and she was planning a strike for that night as soon as she could study the blueprints of the building.

                “So I noticed. What time did you get in? Four? Five?”

                “Something like that,” she grumbled. Damn it all the hell, she needed to be a hell of a lot more quiet when she slipped in and out of her window.

                “And just what, exactly, requires you to be out so late at night and not use the front door?” Vegeta asked flatly, placing a cup of coffee in front of her.

                “It’s not work related. And I used the window because it was quicker and didn’t make as much noise.” Usagi took a few swallows of her scalding hot coffee before pillowing her head on her arms once more.

                “Why don’t you just—“

                “It has nothing to do with my job, therefore it’s not your business,” she snapped. “Please drop it. Nothing I do in my free time will interfere with the work I do for you, so it’s not anyone’s concern but my own.” When Usagi peeked over her arms, she found her boss sitting across from her, glaring at her from over his coffee cup. “What?”

                “Are you in some sort of trouble?” Vegeta lifted a brow when she smirked at first, only to burst out laughing into her arms. “I’m failing to understand how that’s funny, woman.”

                “I’m—uh—oh my God… no, it’s not that. Sorry, give me a—a moment—“ She wiped some tears of laughter from her eyes before giggling like a schoolgirl into her arm pillows once more. For a minute there, it had almost seemed like her boss had given two shits about her, and the even funnier part was the fact that she was _always_ in trouble when she went out on patrol at night! “No,” she lied, “I’m not in any trouble. It’s just… sorry, I’m exhausted, and I get a little stupid when I’m tired.”

                “I heard you sneaking out too,” Trunks said easily from the kitchen doorway, staying put to block any attempted escape. “And I have to admit that I’m curious, too, Usagi. Where do you go at night?”

                “Not any of your business, kid,” she said shortly, sitting up a little to sip at her cup of coffee. “Both of you drop it before you make me mad. I’m fine and perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

                “Really?” Trunks asked, moving in tandem with his father as if this were a battle; they had discussed this several nights ago, but even with their Saiyan abilities, they hadn’t been able to track Usagi once she’d slipped out of the house. It was like she simply disappeared once she got into the woods at the border of the property line.

                Vegeta moved to the doorway as Trunks straddled a backwards chair right in front of the blonde; they knew she’d be a tough nut to crack, but if they played this right she’d spill her secret.

                “Yes, really,” Usagi snorted, totally not fooled by what they were doing. Kami, what amateurs; she knew the good cop, bad cop routine when she saw it and could smell an interrogation coming from a mile away. Hell, she’d perfected her technique of making a perp squeal… but then again, she usually wound up having to break a bone or two before she got what she wanted.

She suppressed a laugh as she realized that Vegeta was the good cop so far, since he’d made her a cup of coffee. “So… if you’re so good at taking care of yourself, Usagi, what’s up with the cuts on your arms?”

Being a smartass was likely her best method of getting out of this; disarm them with ridiculously crazy answers, and she’d be sure to win this argument. “Fight club. But I can’t talk about it,” she replied smoothly. “The first rule and all, you understand.”

Trunks shot his father a look when Vegeta snickered into his hand; of **_course_** the crown prince of Vegeta-sai would actually get that joke and find it funny. _Not helping, old man,_ Trunks signaled with his ki.

 _Oh, come on. It was funny and you know it. And who are you calling old? I remember this sack of bones beating your ass into the ground all fucking week._ “Just drop it, boy. I told you she wasn’t going to talk.”

“No, damn it. I want answers,” Trunks replied seriously. “She’s part of our household now, and our responsibility. Usagi, if you wind up hurt… or worse, it would be on both our consciences.”

The blonde’s resolve hardened when Trunks took her hands and gave her the puppy dog eyes. “Oh, don’t even give me that fucking look, Trunks. I fucking _taught_ you that look when you were fifteen, and it’s not going to work on me. Vegeta?” She asked, in disbelief that she was actually asking her boss to bail her out.

“Hell no, woman. This was the boy’s idea, not mine… but I have to admit that I’m curious, too. Just tell us where you go at night and we’ll drop the subject. The boy’s just worried about your well-being,” Vegeta replied gruffly, trying to sound like he didn’t care either way despite the fact that he’d admitted that he wanted to know.

Fine, they wanted an answer? Usagi smirked in their direction and nodded. “Ok, fine. You really want to know?”

“Yes,” Trunks said flatly, sitting up straight and paying attention.

“Fine, you’ve got it. Before Vegeta gave me a raise last week, I was whoring on the side to make ends meet, and I simply couldn’t turn down my clients after working with them for so many years. After all, I **_love_** the cock.”

The look on Trunks’s face was totally worth it, but even better was the way he turned bright red and coughed into his hand. Even Vegeta’s reaction was satisfying; the Saiyan prince was roaring in genuine laughter so hard that he was holding his sides and leaning against the doorframe. “Best—answer—ever—“ he cackled.

Usagi couldn’t help but join in, the sound of Vegeta laughing was so infectious that they were crowing in unison while Trunks blushed and silently sputtered and fumed at the both of them. “So, ready to drop the subject yet? Because I swear, Trunks, I’ve got at least a dozen more answers like that on the backburner.”

“Not as good as that one,” Vegeta told her, still chuckling into his hand. His laughter died when he felt Trunks’s ki rippling, though. Shit.

“It’s not funny, Usagi!” Trunks snapped, jumping up from his chair. “You already work yourself half to death for us, and then you’re out at all hours of the night on top of it! I’ve paid attention, Usa! You’re only sleeping two or three hours a night, and when you get back from wherever it is you go, you return with fresh bruises or cuts. Is it a man? Is he hitting you or something?”

Usagi blinked and shook her head. Was Trunks actually… mad? Judging from Vegeta’s face, the young playboy was genuinely angry, and she knew from experience that it wasn’t a normal thing. Taking a long drink from her coffee mug, Usagi frowned and shook her head. “A man only hits me once, Trunks. I’ve said it before. And you know I don’t have time for a boyfriend.”

“Then where do you go!?”

Vegeta frowned and sighed when the woman’s eyes hardened into ice chips and she matched his son’s glare. Only a week in the same household, and he’d learned that that look meant business. She wasn’t backing down, and Trunks needed to learn that bit of body language quickly before he wound up getting screamed at.

“Just drop it, Trunks,” she warned.

“No, Usagi, I will not—“

“Then I _quit_ ,” she replied sharply, setting her mug down with a thump. “I’ll have my things packed and I’ll be out in an hour,” she said simply, standing from her seat. Her eyes dared Vegeta to block her exit, and when he did and shook his head, her hand balled into a fist. “Move,” she growled.

“No,” he countered, his mirthless smirk crawling over his mouth. “You’re not quitting. Trunks is going to drop the subject, and you’re going to stay. Or I’ll drag you back here kicking and screaming, woman.”

Usagi’s answer was to punch him in the stomach when he wouldn’t move, and while he grunted at her surprising strength, he grinned when she rubbed her bruised knuckles. God, it was like punching a fucking steel pipe! “Move, Mr. Briefs.”

“Agree to stay and I’ll move. I’m not going through that clusterfuck like I did the morning I fired you. Not again. And I _still_ can’t make my own damned coffee right.”

With his father’s ki flaring wildly at him to apologize and make this right, Trunks sighed. “Fine, I’m sorry. I won’t bring it up again. Just stay, Usagi, we wouldn’t want you to leave so close to Christmas.”

“If you bring it up again—either of you—I’m walking out without notice. That’s a promise,” Usagi whispered dangerously before pushing her way past Vegeta and stalking up to the study to start the day’s work.


	4. Chapter 4

Vegeta blinked open his eyes sleepily at the quiet sound of his cell phone ringing under his pillow, but when he saw the full moon in the sky outside his window, he knew who was calling him and he rushed to throw on a pair of loose pants. “I’m coming,” he said into the phone.

                “Thank you,” her voice whispered gratefully.

                Vegeta hung up the phone and zipped down to the med lab without touching the floor; it wouldn’t do to risk waking Trunks or Usagi… if she was even home, yet. “Dear Kami, woman,” he gasped at the sight of her. “They really put you through the wringer.”

                “I know,” she whimpered, clutching at her ribs.

                “I hate to ask… but what happened to the senzu I gave you?” Vegeta asked as he began to expertly check her over.

                “I took one earlier tonight after… after the first incident… the other, I wanted to save just in case.” Usagi drew in a sharp breath when he lightly pressed her ribcage and she felt the bones grind together.

                “Moon woman… what happened?” Vegeta asked with genuine concern. These weren’t injuries from fighting; Vegeta knew torture when he saw it. He’d participated in enough of it to know the signs, such as the raw circular marks around her wrists and arms, caused by the chafing of rope.

                The tears came unbidden, and Usagi trembled as he wrapped his arms around her lightly and cradled her head to his chest. “They… they caught me. I was… I was trying to locate a headquarters of sort… and they were waiting. I—I barely made it out… that senzu bean… it saved my life… my legs were broken… I—I made an escape, and this second beating was the result… but I got out that time.”

                Vegeta froze at that, and looked down at her seriously. “Moon woman… did they…” He swallowed the rage welling up in him at the very thought. “Did they **_hurt_** you?” God… if they had… thank Kami that Usagi was living there, he’d go get her and have her care for the moon woman if they’d actually…

                She immediately understood his meaning and shook her head. “No… no, I got out of there before that… I heard them talking though, in the other room… I—I was scared,” she admitted softly, her tears falling onto his bare chest. “Th—They were saving me for the—the boss… he—he told them—”

                “You’re safe now,” he assured her, cutting off the statement as he sensed her breaking down. “Eat that last senzu, Moon. I’ll get you some more in a minute.” Vegeta waited several minutes for her shaking to ease, and she eventually pulled the other senzu from a hole in the air and ate it, sighing as her injuries instantly mended. “There, that’s better. Come on, let’s get you something hot to drink, it’s cold outside and you’re shivering.”

                “I—uh—no, Vegeta, but thank you. I have to go… I have work in the morning. But thank you for the offer,” Usagi whispered as she felt the heat rising in her cheeks at the realization that he was holding her. It felt nice, though, she had to admit. Vegeta was an asshole, yes, but from her dealings with him as Sailor Moon, and a couple incidents as Usagi, she knew he was a good man. Just a hard man.

                Fighting down his beast, which was urging him to protect and claim, Vegeta nodded and released her. “I’ll go get you those senzu. Stay put, moon woman.” The prince rushed back up to his room and considered waking Trunks for a moment to meet her. But his beast roared jealously at the thought and Vegeta knew right then that his inner Saiyan had definitely set his sights on claiming Sailor Moon whether he liked it or not. “Ugh, damned thing has a mind of his own,” Vegeta snorted quietly to himself as he grabbed five senzu from his stash and brought them down to her.

                Just the sight of her sitting there, quiet and still trembling a little, set his beast to yelling out for him to comfort her and then kill whomever had harmed her, and Vegeta couldn’t help but give in to the first urge. “You going to be alright?” He asked as he sat down next to her and held her tightly against him.

                “Yeah,” she whispered tearfully, “I’m sorry for the waterworks, Vegeta… I just… I haven’t been that terrified in a long time,” she admitted. 

                “You shouldn’t be doing this alone, moon woman. Whatever happened to those other girls that ran around with you fighting crime?”

                “That’s a very long story, Vegeta,” she sighed softly, wiping at fresh tears. “In short, they don’t remember ever being Senshi and they no longer have their powers, anyway. I have them now… that’s why I’m so strong. I’d be stronger as Sailor Cosmos, my strongest form, but…” She shuddered. “I can’t be her… she’s… _cold_.”

                “Cold isn’t you, you’re right,” Vegeta agreed. She was warm, and full of light and life, and those thoughts made it impossible not to turn her head towards his so that he could press his lips to hers. “Damn it,” he breathed when she stiffened in reaction. “Shouldn’t have done that.”

                Blushing to her toes at the spark of desire that had gone through her at the contact, Sailor Moon slowly pulled away. “No, it’s… it’s ok. If anything, you deserved that,” she replied a little shyly.

                “I didn’t do it because I thought I _deserved_ it,” he snapped hotly, quickly separating from her and walking out of the med lab. Vegeta made it halfway up the stairs to his room before he forced himself to stop and turned back around. But she was gone when he reached the med lab, the only evidence she’d been there a scrap of paper fluttering near the open window. He picked it up guiltily, but smirked when he read it.

                _I know you didn’t. And I didn’t mean it that way._

Well, then. Maybe he’d have to try it again the next time he saw her.

#########################

Vegeta hesitated only a half-minute before cracking open his assistant’s door and staring into the gloom. It was six in the morning, and for the first time other than the morning he’d fired her, she wasn’t up and working, and his coffee wasn’t ready. “Woman?” He grunted.

                A soft whimper was his only response, and he was surprised to feel an actual twinge of concern for her. “You hurt?”

                “I’m coming,” she replied with another whimper, and he heard her slide out of the bed with what sounded like a sob. When she got to the door and visibly cringed at the light in the hallway, holding a wet cloth over her forehead, Vegeta frowned.

                “You’re sick?”

                With a faint blush, Usagi nodded slightly, flinching at the throbbing in her temples. “Migraine,” she whispered. “Don’t worry, I’ll go make your coffee and get to work, Mr. Briefs.”

                Vegeta sputtered when she stepped past him, only to clutch at her forehead and cover her eyes with the other under the full glare of the hallway lights. He barely caught her before she fell, and when he scooped her up, the blood scent hit him full force. “It’s one of those woman time headaches, isn’t it?” Her slight nod and the detail that she wasn’t even fighting the fact that he was carrying her confirmed his suspicions, and he put her back in her bed, careful not to jar her neck or head. “I can fix this. Roll onto your stomach, woman.”

                Hearing that he could fix the pounding freight train running through her skull made Usagi give less than two shits about the fact that her boss was not only in her room, but sitting on the edge of her bed in nothing but his pants while she was only clad in a silk nightgown. She rolled slowly, only to jump a little when he sat on her backside and shoved her nightgown up and over her head before she could even voice a protest.

                “Just hush,” he grunted, “I’ve done this before.” His hands immediately went to her neck and his thumbs began to slowly move in circles along her hairline, and when she practically sobbed in reaction, he knew it was working. Bulma had had the same reaction the first time he’d done this for her over twenty years ago. “Relax,” he ordered, his voice just barely above a whisper so as not to worsen her headache. “There’s too much tension in your neck and shoulders.”

                “Can’t,” she whimpered, “hurts too much.”

                Vegeta sighed and nodded, he’d been a victim of only two migraines in his entire life, and both of them had been even more excruciating than his own demise at the hands of Frieza. He knew what he had to do and started at her neck once more, slowly working his thumbs down the length of the muscles beside her spine until he reached the hem of her panties. He then spread his hands over the width of her lower back, warmed them with his ki, and proceeded to massage muscles that were tight with menstrual cramps.

                Usagi gasped sharply at the heat pouring into her where his hands worked and kneaded her flesh, and that same breath was released with a low moan of pleasure. The pain in her lower back seemed to melt away within moments, but he didn’t stop there. She let out a series of soft moans and sighs as his hands skillfully moved over the length of her back for a long time before coming to rest at her shoulders.

                Vegeta smirked in triumph as he felt her slowly succumb to his skill, and practically groaned with glee at the knowledge that his coffee was just around the corner. “The things I do for that damned coffee,” he chuckled.

                “And here… I was thinking that you were… just being… kind,” she whispered in reply between soft gurgles of pleasure. Then he moved back to her hairline and did something with his knuckles that made her mumble incoherently in Japanese, and she bent her head to give him better access to the spot that he was focusing on.

                “Think whatever you want to, woman. Just so long as it involves one sugar and three creams,” he snickered in reply. “Still cramping?” He asked after a few more minutes.

                “Yeah, but the headache’s nearly gone. I think I can function, now,” she sighed in relief.

                “It’ll come right back, woman. You’ll be a puddle in the middle of the kitchen before my coffee’s even ready.”

                “I’m beginning to think you’re a bit of a caffeine addict, Mr. Briefs.”

                “No, I’m a stickler for routine and perfection. Your coffee is perfection, and it’s part of the routine I’ve established over the years. Flip over,” he ordered, and when she didn’t immediately comply he rolled her. Vegeta noted her blush and rolled his eyes a little when she slowly shook her head only to wince at the action. “Woman, you’re covered, and it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Just relax.”

                She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look up at him and see all of those lovely rippling muscles at work as his hands warmed once more and he began to gently massage her lower belly. “You… uh… really don’t have to do this, Mr. Briefs.”

                “What…? Is this turning you on, woman?” Vegeta grinned when her eyes flew open and she glared at him, her face bright red at the very suggestion. “It was a _joke_ , woman. Kami, and you say that **_I_** lack a sense of humor.”

                Usagi just looked away from him and avoided eye contact, thankful that she was on her period. If she hadn’t been, she very likely would have been turned on by the way those large, calloused hands were moving over her with a gentleness that she would have never thought them capable of. “No, that’s enough,” she said quickly, when his hands moved to one of her thighs. But he grunted a reply that was so elaborately vulgar that she immediately clamped down on another protest and lay back, closing her eyes.

                Vegeta stopped just above her knee when she let out a pleased little noise and looked up from what he was doing, only to be floored by his own arousal at the sight of her face. Her eyes were closed and relaxed, and her cheeks were flushed in embarrassment while her lips were parted slightly in an expression of pleasure. “The knee hurts?”

                “Always,” she whispered, “worse during my period.”

                “Injury?” Vegeta resumed his ministrations as he watched her face, unable to look away from her as her lips turned up in a tiny, pleased smile.

                “Car wreck,” she lied smoothly.

                He moved to her other thigh and stopped at what looked like a very old scar. “And this?”

                Usagi tried not to jump as his fingers brushed over the bullet wound she’d sustained only a couple weeks ago—the one he’d helped heal. “Childhood accident. How’d you get all of yours?” She asked with the sole intention of turning the subject to him, her eyes staying closed as she tried not to moan outright at what his hands were doing to her.

                “Fighting,” he replied simply. When her eyes cracked open and she looked at him questioningly, he snorted. “Fine. A _lot_ of fighting, over a lot of years. This one?” He asked, tracing an indentation on her thigh that he couldn’t quite see in the dark.  He didn’t miss her shiver, and Vegeta wondered what in the hell was wrong with him when he brushed over it once more. He could feel the Saiyan in him rising to the surface suddenly, telling him that the woman he was straddling would be a suitable mate.

                _No, damn it, no!_ He raged at his inner beast. The only woman he’d even be remotely interested in was that moon woman, and he was not going to jump just any beautiful blonde that looked a little bit like her.

                “Fighting,” she answered. Usagi smirked when he halted his actions, and she could practically feel that intense black gaze boring into her. “What? Girls fight, too, you know.”

                “Not girls like you,” he retorted. “Relax,” he ordered, when he felt her tense in what could only be anger. “So… who were you fighting?”

                “Someone I didn’t like,” she replied tartly. “You?”

                “Same,” he chuckled, unable to help himself. “Did you win?”

                “Kicked their ass,” she replied in a tone with a hint of savagery that had his brows hitting his hairline. And that tiny, mirthless smile on her face reminded him a lot of **_her_** , too. “You?”

                “Won a hell of a lot more than I lost.” Fuck, that look on her face made him think of that damned moon woman enough that he really was starting to get turned on. He needed to finish this and fast. “Eh, hold still,” he admonished when she jumped at the sensation of him leaning over her, his fingers going to her temples.

                Usagi blinked open her eyes just long enough to see the intense look of concentration on his face and immediately closed them again, the sight of his jaw twitching burned into her brain. When that happened, it only meant that something was really bothering him, and she didn’t know if he knew, but she could feel something hard pulsing against her lower stomach. Damn it, why did he have to be so downright sexy!? The fact that he’d kissed her a few nights ago as Sailor Moon wasn’t helping either as she recalled that rush of heat she’d felt at the contact.

 “Thank you,” she whispered. The fingers at her temples were moving carefully and gently, and she could feel the remainder of her migraine beginning to melt away. “I think I can make your coffee now, Mr. Briefs.”

                Vegeta nodded and slid off the bed, and after a moment he tapped his foot impatiently. “Well? Come on, woman.”

                Usagi blushed and managed to sit up without exposing herself, and quickly righted her nightgown before slipping out of the bed. She blushed when he caught her as she stumbled against a wave of dizziness, and she couldn’t help but notice how wonderfully warm and solid he was as he helped her stand back up. “Um… thank you. Sorry, I was just dizzy.”

                “Got your balance now?” He asked, unable to keep the husky edge out of his voice as he held her close. His inner Saiyan practically purred at the feel of those soft curves pressing against him and the way her hand was laying on his bare chest.

                “Um… yes,” she said softly, and before she could stop herself she stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips over his cheek. “Thank you again, I don’t know how I would have made it through today if you hadn’t done… what you did.”

                “Anytime,” he grunted, resisting the temptation to bend his head and give her a real kiss. His cheek practically burned where her lips had touched him, almost as if it were a brand. Just as it had when the moon woman had kissed him. “Now, go make my damned coffee, woman. I have a training schedule that’s already an hour behind.”

                The light still hurt her eyes a little bit in the kitchen, but Usagi could already feel the pain ebbing and knew that the migraine was gone… at least for now. They were getting more and more frequent as she continued to work harder and sleep less, but she couldn’t stop. “Not now,” she whispered to herself. “You’re so close.” But she couldn’t afford to be laid low by a pounding team of horses running through her head, either.

                She’d take a few days off from the fighting, she finally decided as she set the coffeemaker to brew. Usagi had always hated trying to do battle during the worst days of her period, anyway, so it was a double-win for her. She’d get the rest she desperately needed, and her skills wouldn’t be compromised by the menstrual cramps and bloating. Besides, she knew where the next Triad cell was located, and it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

She could put some more info into the Senshi computer as well, since she’d heard some stuff about the Yakuza during the couple hours that she’d been tied up. That way she could get right to work on them once she was finished taking out the Triads.

She was broken out of her reverie by a lavender-haired playboy groaning as he sat down at the table. “I forgot how damned bad Dad’s training regimens are. Coffee?” He asked hopefully, blushing a little at the sight of Usagi in her slightly revealing nightgown.

“Ack, sorry, honey. I’ll go get some clothes on in a minute. Vegeta’s just sort of used to me stomping into the kitchen in only my night clothes. Here,” she offered, setting a mug in front of him. “And if you’re going to stay out all night partying with a bunch of girls, you don’t have room to complain about spending time with your father, Trunks. Trust me, you should be grateful for the chance,” she added a little sadly.

“She’s right,” Vegeta grunted, tipping Usagi a nod when she gave him a smile of gratitude for getting rid of her headache. “The part about not whining, anyway. If you don’t want to suffer from a lack of sleep, stay the fuck at home and go to bed on time,” he advised.

“Hey, I’m a grown man, damn it!”

Usagi winced and squeezed her eyes shut at the increase in volume, and Vegeta cuffed Trunks lightly in the back of the head. “It’s too fucking early for yelling, keep it down,” he snapped.

Since **_when_** was it ever too early or late for yelling where Vegeta was concerned!? Trunks just stared at his father in shock, and missed the naked look of relief that Usagi was giving the older Saiyan. “Ok…? Is this better?” He asked softly.

“Much,” Vegeta grunted. “Now shut up and eat something, and get your ass to the training room. Kakarot and his spawn are coming over for a training exercise in an hour.”

“Then sparring, maybe?” Trunks asked hopefully.

“Damn right. We need a rematch after that tie last week. Eat,” Vegeta grumped, setting a microwaved meal in front of him and another in front of Usagi.

“Thank you,” she said softly to Vegeta, feeling her heart warm towards him for such a kind gesture after all he’d already done for her that morning.

A curt nod was his only reply, and if Trunks thought to comment on it, he obviously squashed the urge at the sight of his father’s jaw twitching. Something was clearly bothering him, that was the only viable explanation for the Saiyan prince acting so out of character.

######################

                Vegeta stopped in the living room at the sight of Usagi folding an enormous pile of clothing, and shook his head a little in surprise. “What are you doing, woman?”

                “Folding clothes, duh. What in the hell does it look like?” She snorted, not once taking her eyes off the stock reports on the television.

                “I’m not blind, woman. _Why_ are you folding clothes? _My_ clothes, at that?” He added with a touch of annoyance.

                “Would you prefer to fold them yourself?” She asked a little coldly.

                “No. That’s what maids are for. Which is why I’m asking why _you’re_ doing the laundry?”

                “One of the maids went into labor this morning before she could come in to work, and I fired another one for stealing yesterday. Does that answer your questions, Mr. Briefs?” Usagi asked, knowing what was coming next, and she decided to answer it before he could open his mouth all the way. “Some of Mrs. Briefs’s jewelry,” she added softly. When Vegeta growled, Usagi shook her head. “Every piece has been returned and the others were accounted for. I handled it the moment I was tipped off… it’s not the first time something like this has happened.”

                “Really.” However, Vegeta couldn’t help but feel a bit of gratitude towards her for not only protecting the things that had once belonged to his dead mate, but for also picking up the slack with no complaint. “May I ask how it was handled?”

                Usagi lifted a brow and shrugged. “I threatened to prosecute her to the fullest if she didn’t return the jewelry immediately, and then I had her escorted out,” she lied smoothly. Actually, she’d slapped the woman around quite a bit when the maid denied stealing the jewelry, but Mr. Briefs didn’t need to know… after all, that was also something that wasn’t a first for her when taking care of thieves in the household. As Usagi or as Sailor Moon, she wouldn’t abide a thief, _period_.

                “Sure,” Vegeta grunted with a tiny, knowing smirk. That glint in her eyes was all he needed to see, it completely gave away what she was really thinking. So… she’d gotten a little physical in defense of his home, huh? “I should give you a raise.”

                Usagi snorted at that and laughed, not seeing the way his eyes lit up momentarily at the sound. “You already gave me one, Mr. Briefs. Even though it was eight years late,” she replied, still chuckling. “I’ll settle for you putting your own damned clothes away, though. Here.” Usagi stood and handed over a pile. “I’ll set the rest outside your door in a basket. I thought you could use those shorts since there were so many of them. Kami… you _really_ go through underwear.”

                “Those aren’t my underwear, woman.”

                “Huh… well…” Usagi glanced back at the pile and scrutinized it carefully before scratching her head. “Then where are… **oh**.”

                Vegeta smirked when she suddenly blushed to her toes and mumbled something under her breath in Japanese. “You won’t find any sleeping clothes in there either, woman,” he informed her with a laugh as he turned and made his way up the stairs.

                He came back an hour later to find all the clothes folded, and Usagi curled up on the couch in one of those flimsy nightgowns, her legs tucked under her and a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. “You’re not going out tonight?”

                “Not on my period,” she replied absently, still watching the ticker across the bottom of the screen.

                Vegeta froze at that and stared at her. “You’re not _really_ a whore, are you?” He asked.

                Usagi barked out a laugh and grinned at him. “Kami, no, Mr. Briefs. Why would you think that?”

                “Well, you’re not going out on your woman thing, so… are you a stripper, then?” He guessed, trying to think of all the professions that would possibly keep her home while she was bleeding. “Because either you’re a stripper, or you have an obsession with mouth-watering underwear,” he added, pointing at her pile of folded clothes.

                “Hentai,” Usagi snorted, whacking his arm lightly. “Keep your eyes and your mind off my panties, Mr. Briefs.”

                “Yet you neglected to mention my hands and mouth,” Vegeta retorted smoothly, leaning back into the couch cushions to simply watch her blush from head to toe. “So… should I have a pole installed in your room so you can practice your routine at home?” He continued to tease.

                “Oh my—you—you— _asshole_ ,” Usagi huffed, trying her hardest not to laugh. “You’re such a fucking troll,” she muttered into her cup.

                “Oh, you’re no fun. How’s the head?”

                “Still hurts a little,” she admitted when he gave her a look that told her a lie would not be tolerated. “But it’s fine, Mr. Briefs, it’s nothing compared to this morning, thank you. I just need some rest, that’s why I’m staying home.”

                “For a few days at least?” He asked. Vegeta grunted and nodded in approval when she nodded sullenly. “Good. I never thought I’d say this to anyone, but you work too hard, woman. It’s acceptable to take a break from time to time. Believe me, I learned it the hard way. Long story,” he added when she gave him a questioning look. He couldn’t very well explain the gravity room explosion on his quest to Super Saiyan without giving away his big secret. “Ugh… do you always watch the news?”

                “No, but after the deal with Omura was finalized, I wanted to watch the stocks. You can change it, though, I’ve only read the same numbers a dozen times. Those numbers are looking good, too,” she added with a grin.

                “Aren’t the stock exchanges closed, woman?”

                “Not in America,” she said gleefully. “And they’re going up and up. Trunks is going to be ecstatic when the Japanese exchange opens in the morning. Speaking of Trunks…?”

                “Sleeping,” Vegeta replied as he flipped through the channels. “Boy’s gonna have to learn not to burn the candles at both ends. The university may tolerate it as long as he makes the grade, but I won’t.”

                “Eh, he’s just a kid, Mr. Briefs. Cut him a little slack. I remember the few parties I got to go to in college with my girlfriends, and we made an awful lot of awesome memories.”

                “The brat’s not going to a few parties, woman. He’s going out every night binge drinking and screwing anything that moves,” Vegeta snapped, his voice dripping with disapproval. “I would have thought a son of mine would have more respect for himself than that.”

                Usagi blinked and stared at him. “Well, I’ll never accuse _you_ of holding to the double standard,” she replied in wonder.

                Vegeta chuckled at that. “Oh, no, woman. Be glad I never had a daughter. I would have been snapping necks the moment she reached the age of sixteen. I only hold my son to the standard I would expect of someone of his… status.” _A prince of Vegeta-sai_ , but Vegeta wasn’t going to blurt that out. “He’s well respected and always in the public eye. He should conduct himself with a little more decorum.” 

                Usagi couldn’t help but admit that Vegeta was right; Trunks’s partying had died down a notch in the last few months, but since he’d returned home he was out almost every night. “I’ll talk with him,” she offered softly. “If that’s alright with you. This is the sort of conversation that doesn’t need yelling.”

                “And how would you handle it?” Vegeta snorted. He’d only tried for a few years to pound it into his son’s head that his body was a temple and should be properly maintained. That didn’t mean he should _totally_ abstain from sex and alcohol, but there was such a thing as too much of it.    

                Usagi smiled up at him and winked. “I’ll guilt him into being a good boy. I’m sure a few hints about you being worried and a statement about what his mother would think would be more than sufficient to do the job.”

                “I am _not_ worried,” Vegeta snorted.                      

                “You are so full of shit your eyes are turning brown. Besides… it’s pretty easy to see that you don’t get worried easily… or you don’t show it at least. I think just a ‘Trunks, your father even seems worried about you’ will be more than enough to make the little puppet dance to our tune.”

                Our tune? Vegeta nearly laughed at that and still found himself smirking as he realized that Usagi would be just as much of a puppet master in this instance as he would. Well, at least they were both getting what they wanted out of it. “Kami, woman. And I thought I was the great king of manipulation.”

                “Nope. Meet the queen, Mr. Briefs. I used to act like I was going to cry when Trunks was little whenever he’d start being bad. I can play that boy like a well-tuned instrument, just you watch,” she replied smugly.

                “That was during that… acting out phase, wasn’t it?” Vegeta rumbled, feeling a pang of guilt for not being a better father right after Bulma’s death. But he’d been too shocked by it and had flown into a rage after Shenron had refused to bring her back due to the death being of natural causes. He’d disappeared for a couple months and when he’d returned, Usagi had taken Bulma’s place in a way. He’d ignored it then and for years afterwards, but over the last few weeks he found himself recalling all the little extra things she did for them all that normally would only be done by his mate. “Trunks… he sees you as a mother, I think. At least as close to one as—“

                “No, Mr. Briefs. I’ve never tried to replace his mother and I’m not about to start. Ever. I’m a colleague, an employee, maybe even a friend. But I’ve—“

                “I know you never tried to act like you’re a replacement for Bulma,” Vegeta snapped quietly. “I was merely saying that he looks up to you. He values your opinion and he cares about you. Not that I ever paid any attention, but I’m fairly sure that you were the one he ran to whenever something bothered him.”

                Usagi blushed and looked away; it was true, what he was saying. She’d only been nineteen when Bulma had died, but as Bulma’s secretary, a lot of the things going on in the company had fallen into her lap. Schedules, delegation of the staff, etc. She was the only one that had known the ins and outs of the company at the time, and Trunks had been far too young to take the reins.

                And when Bulma had died, she was the one member of the household who had been a constant for Trunks; anytime he’d come to see his mother, Usagi had been there, usually with a cookie or a piece of candy for the boy. So Trunks had attached himself to Usagi at the hip right after the funeral, and whenever he’d gotten into trouble or fought with Goten, she’d been the person he’d run to, she’d been the one that had held him while he’d cried. And when he’d left for college, Usagi had secretly felt like she was saying goodbye to her own child.

             And since he’d left three years ago… “Trunks and I don’t talk like we used to,” she confessed softly. “I think it’s just part of him growing up, Mr. Briefs. Which is good in a way… it means that he doesn’t need me as a crutch anymore.”

                Vegeta wasn’t fooled by the sadness in her eyes. She felt like she was losing him, but she wasn’t Trunks’s mother, and she would never voice that opinion. It would be… unprofessional. He huffed a little at the thought and tried not to hug her, to give her some comfort. “You helped raise him after Bulma died,” he finally said. “You’re more than just a crutch, woman. And you can probably talk some damned sense into him. I’m going to bed,” Vegeta said flatly, feeling uncomfortable with the look of gentle gratitude in her eyes.

                “Night, Mr. Briefs,” Usagi said softly, “and thank you. For everything today. I appreciate it.” He didn’t reply, but Usagi couldn’t stop the smile on her lips if she tried when he actually stopped and grabbed his pile of clothes without her even asking him to.


	5. Chapter 5

“Morning, Trunks,” Usagi said from the coffeemaker. She set a stack of pancakes in front of him and sat down at the table after fixing them both coffee.

                Chocolate chip pancakes…? Trunks frowned and looked back and forth between her and the stack several times. “Where’s Father?” He asked suspiciously. Chocolate chip pancakes had always been Usagi’s way of making him feel better ever since his mother had died. Some things never changed… and he knew without a doubt that some sort of confrontation was coming.

                “Mr. Briefs is in the training room right now, since I asked him not to yell. Since your father is incapable of not yelling, he removed himself from the house altogether. He’s worried about you, Trunks. And so am I.”

                “Look, I stayed home last night, didn’t I!?” Trunks snapped. “And I’m up now, at five in the morning as Father wanted, and I’ll be ready for training at six. _Like he wanted_.”

                “Trunks, honey… this isn’t about your father. Did you not hear me? He’s worried about **_you_**. We both are. A little partying is fine, even he agrees with that, but what you’re doing is unhealthy. It’s not even the drinking so much as it is the women. There’s diseases, and pregnancy, and—“

                “I didn’t come home early for a lecture, Usagi.”

                The way his blue eyes bore into hers made her flinch; Trunks was a lot more like his father than either of them realized. “Which is why your father is outside,” she reminded him gently, giving his hand a squeeze. “I just… I don’t want to get a call one night, telling me that you’re hurt… or worse. Trunks, I don’t think I could survive something like that, and I know your father wouldn’t. He’s more worried about you than you think. He loves you.”

                Those last three words were what got through to him, if only a little, and he relaxed and nodded slightly. “Fine… I’ll stay home at night from now on.”

                “That’s _not_ what I meant, Trunks. If you want to take a nice girl out on a date, then go do that. The occasional party on a weekend? Fine. We just want you to be careful, to not wind up doing something you’ll regret. Ok?”

                “Yeah, Usa. I’m sorry, I’ll try and do better.” Trunks kissed her cheek and gave her a hug when he saw unshed tears glittering in her eyes. “And for the record, what you’re doing to yourself is unhealthy, too, Usagi. You need to sleep and eat more.”

                “Your father and I already had this conversation, Trunks. Don’t you start, too. I promised him that I’d stay home for a few nights as well, since my migraines are making a comeback. What? Don’t give me that look, young man. I can’t help the fact that a team of draft horses were running through my head yesterday morning.”

                “So _that’s_ why Father wanted me to be quiet. Do you still have your pills?” Trunks smiled a little in relief and dug into his pancakes when she nodded; he remembered all too well when he’d run to the medicine cabinet for her a few times as a child to fetch the white bottle that had her meds. They’d taken good care of each other in their own ways. He had distracted her from work whenever she started rubbing her eyes, signaling an oncoming headache, had reminded her to eat on occasion, things like that. And she had been a surrogate mother to him in more ways than she probably even realized. “You and Father seem to be getting along a lot better than I expected… now that he even knows you exist,” Trunks snickered.

                “Trust me, sometimes I wish it was like things were,” Usagi replied dryly into her coffee cup. “But he’s not awful. I still don’t even see him every day except for breakfast.”

                “Thank Kami?”

                “Yes, thank Kami a million times over,” she snorted. “So… what are your plans for today?”

                “Training with Father. I was going to go out tonight…” he shrugged and gave her a guilty look. “…but I’ll stay home. I finished all my classes early and they don’t start up again for a month, so I think I’ll spend some time with Father. Goku says he’s been looking particularly lonely lately.”

                “Tell Son-san that I said thank you. Your father broods by himself far too often, but I don’t have the time to keep him company. Besides… he’d probably refuse my company and scream me right out of the training room.”

                “Yeah, he would.” Trunks grinned and shook his head; if only she knew what went on in that room every day! Usagi would likely shit herself to learn that they were the golden warriors that had saved the planet so many years ago, the ones that the media had tried to track down and never could. “And your plans?”

                “Ugh…” Usagi’s head hit the table with a dramatic thud. “I have two new maids to interview today, a conference call with a broker, and a stack of paperwork as high as my head. Then the guest list for the Christmas party, if I get time.” Not to mention running an analysis on the Yakuza’s most likely hiding spots. She had the Triads located and would strike as soon as her period was over, since the cramps this time were particularly hellacious.

                “Well… don’t work too hard, ok?”

                “I won’t… your father made it clear this morning that he would duct tape me to the couch and put my computer just out of reach if he thought I was pushing it,” Usagi snorted.

                “Heh. He likes you. Dad normally doesn’t bother threatening people he dislikes. He either ignores them or beats the shit out of them. And the fact that he threatened you in order to make you take care of yourself… he _really_ must like you. Like family. Just fair warning, though… Dad doesn’t make idle threats,” Trunks added.

                “I’d gathered as much. And he doesn’t like _me_ ,” Usagi chuckled, “he likes his coffee.” Still, she couldn’t contain her blush at the thought of the morning before; his hands had been so gentle, so attentive, and while his mouth had been a drawn down in a scowl most of the time, there’d been this look in his eyes… No. No, no, a thousand times no. Not in a million fucking years. Sure, he was attractive as hell. Downright sexy. And he clearly had a yen for Sailor Moon. But _not_ for Usagi.

                “Keep telling yourself that, but Dad’s never fixed breakfast for anyone but family, Usa. And he made it for you yesterday,” Trunks countered with a sly grin as he stood from the table and walked out the back door.                                                                                                                                          

                He found his father eating his own breakfast and drinking his coffee from a huge mug, and without a word Trunks set his own drink down beside Vegeta’s and went straight into a series of katas. His form was much better this morning, his movements smoother, more fluid.

                “A lot easier when you’re not fighting a hangover,” Vegeta rumbled knowingly.

                “Yeah,” Trunks admitted with a hint of embarrassment. So, he’d noticed how much trouble he’d had yesterday. Who was he kidding? Of course his father had noticed, few things escaped Vegeta’s watchful eye, especially during training.

                Vegeta set down his coffee and gracefully joined in the warm-up exercise without the slightest hesitation or stumble, and the two of them moved in unison as they had for years, not once hinting that they’d only done this a handful of times over the last several months. “Plans for tonight?” He grunted.

                “I thought I’d sneak onto Usagi’s computer and at least do payroll for her or something. I could smell the blood scent on her in the kitchen. It’s really strong and she looks pretty miserable.” Trunks sighed and shook his head. “She works even harder than you do, Father. I never thought I’d say that about anyone. And she needs to take better care of herself,” he added with a little growl. “I’m about to smash her damned computer.”

                “You like her?” Vegeta asked curiously. When Trunks shrugged and gave him a blank look, Vegeta pushed down a wave of unwelcome jealousy. “It’s a good match. You should make a move, boy.”

                “I—what—dear Kami, **_no_**!” Trunks snorted, falling to his ass as he laughed it off. “Oh, gods, Father! Whatever gave you **_that_** idea!? I see Usa as family, but not as—not like _that_!”

                “Huh. My mistake, boy. Who do you have your eye on, then?” The look on Trunks’s face had Vegeta back on even footing, and he smirked at his son’s nervousness. “Who?” He pressed.

                “She’s um… she’s too young, Father. I can’t—I mean, she won’t be sixteen for a few more days as it is…”

                A memory of Kakarot mentioning a birthday next week came to Vegeta’s mind, and he groaned a little. “That tomboy grandbrat of Kakarot’s?”

                “Her name is Pan, Father,” Trunks growled angrily. “And she’s really grown up a lot… she doesn’t wear those cargo shorts and bandanas anymore, either. But she still trains with Gohan and Videl; Gohan said that she was close to becoming the first female Super Saiyan if she could just find the right catalyst to do so.”

                “Huh… that strong? Fuck, I approve of the match, then. Go fuck her brains out, boy,” Vegeta chuckled, pleased at the way his son was blushing and looking away. “Sixteen was the mating age on Vegeta-sai for females,” he added. “Sixteen isn’t too young to take her. Though… I’d ask Gohan and Kakarot’s permission to take her as a mate, even if she’s agreeable. It wouldn’t do to get your face pounded in by a couple of pissed off Super Saiyans on the offense.”

                “Gohan would have my balls,” Trunks moaned into his hands. “Hell, _Videl_ would have my balls. Gohan would just hold me down for her.”

                “I suggest you speak with the woman first, before you confront her sire,” Vegeta advised. “She might just hate your guts. In my experience, a woman doesn’t want a man that’s been labeled as a slut, Trunks.” He frowned when his son looked downright hurt. “You made mistakes, boy. We all have. The lesson is to realize those mistakes and not make them again.”

                “Yes, Father.”

#############################

                All done. The maids were hired, the paperwork was finished, the conference call had gone well, and she’d even sent flowers to the maid that had delivered a baby boy late last night. The invitations for the party were sent too, and her Senshi computer was running a program to pinpoint likely Yakuza hideouts.

                That would take a few hours, so Usagi let herself relax in a bath for a while and sighed in gratitude that her period was slacking off. Being Lunarian, she usually only bled for three days, but it was always heavy and painful. Depending on how she felt tomorrow, she’d strike on the Triads in a little over twenty-four hours.

                In fact… Usagi dried herself off quickly, threw on some clothes, and transformed before Sailor Teleporting to a ledge on the building she’d been staking out before they’d caught her at another location and nearly killed her. Yup. The Triads were still there and they looked awfully busy, moving crates of what looked like guns. They must be waiting for her, she realized with a frown.

                Usagi teleported back to her bathroom and detransformed, shaking her head to herself. “Maybe tomorrow night’s a bad idea. Maybe I should scope them out some more… but if I do, I lose the element of catching them unawares in the least… they’ll be better prepared for me if I wait. Damn it.”

 

###################

                Vegeta scowled at the sight of Usagi sitting at the kitchen table, the shades drawn, the lights off, and her computer opened while she typed and looked at the screen, dark sunglasses covering her eyes. “Why didn’t you call me, woman?”

                Usagi visibly winced at the volume of his voice and rubbed at her eyes under the glasses. “Please don’t yell,” she whimpered.

                “That wasn’t even close to yelling and you know it,” Vegeta snorted, albeit much softer than his previous sentence. “Hold still,” he ordered with a little growl of annoyance, moving behind her to begin working on her neck with ki-warmed hands. “Not on your woman thing?”

                “No,” Usagi replied, her voice still coming out in a pain-laced whimper as she pushed back the laptop and laid her head down on the table. “Just stressed. Big deal this week.” And an attack on the Triads coming up that she’d put off for two more nights. She couldn’t wait any longer, though, she needed to strike before they acquired even more men and weapons than those she’d already spotted through the windows of their headquarters.

                “Feh… what in the hell do you normally do for these things anyway?”

                “What you see right now… dark room, sunglasses, absolute silence—“

                “Besides the sound of you pounding on that damned keyboard,” Vegeta chuckled. “Some nights I can hear it upstairs.”

                “Sorry, yeah. Loud typer, I can’t help it. I have some pills, too, but they make me loopy,” she sighed miserably.

                “Where are they, woman? I’ll go get them,” Vegeta offered. “I’ll call Trunks and have him finish whatever it is you’re working on.”

                “No,” she whispered; even through the haze of throbbing pain in her skull, she couldn’t deny how wonderful his hands felt, gently working over her neck and shoulders, slowly coaxing her to relax. “Trunks should enjoy his vacation.”

                _Boy, get down here,_ Vegeta ordered his son, flaring his ki. _Before I seriously piss this woman off._

                Trunks was there in a few minutes, his eyebrows lifting at the sight of his father massaging their personal assistant’s shoulders as if she was… his mate. “Father? Usagi?”

                Vegeta shot him a scathing look when Usagi cringed and tensed up again under his hands. “Shh… Damn it, boy, keep it down. She’s ill. Take over whatever it is that she’s working on. I’m taking her to her room to rest.” When Usagi opened her mouth and protested softly, Vegeta lightly whacked her leg. “Woman, don’t fucking push me or I’ll start yelling for real.”

                “Please don’t,” she practically sobbed, squeezing her eyes tightly shut behind the glasses as she prepared for him to increase the volume.

                Vegeta sagged a little at the sight of her in pain, his hand lifting to comfortingly stroke the top of her head. “I won’t, woman. But you’re going to get some damned rest and relax for a while. Trunks can do whatever this is. Come on,” he ordered, keeping his voice barely above a whisper as he carefully lifted her into his arms. “Keep your eyes shut against the light,” he added as he pushed past his son, who was gaping at his father like he’d grown a second head.

                Usagi felt them ascending the stairs and flinched at the sound of a door shutting when Vegeta carried her into her room and placed her on her bed.

                “Pills?”

                “Nightstand,” she replied, “need two.” She felt his hand at her mouth in moments and gratefully opened it to take the medicine, followed by a swallow of water as he sat her up and held a glass to her lips. “Thank you,” she whispered.

                “Welcome. Take off your shirt and roll onto your stomach,” he ordered softly as his beast began to take over, demanding that he care for his mate, even though he’d made it clear to his inner Saiyan that he was _not_ going to claim Usagi.

                The princess of the moon blushed, but winced when she tried to shake her head. “I’m alright, Mr. Briefs, thank you. I’ll just sleep it off when the pills kick in.”

                “I already know you’re not wearing a bra, woman,” Vegeta snorted impatiently. “I won’t look. Just take it off and tell me when you’re lying down. Do it or I’ll yell,” he threatened once more. It was an empty threat, sure, since he’d never do anything to hurt her, but she didn’t need to know that.

                Usagi sighed, but her head was swimming so badly she kept fumbling with the buttons and only managed to unfasten one of them. She started when she felt his hands taking over for her after a minute, but before she could argue, he hushed her with a kiss to her forehead.

                “There, lay down, Usa,” he told her, trying to look away from her bared chest. Damn it, the woman was perfection, and his beast was practically roaring in response at the sight of her, demanding that he make her feel better only so he could claim her immediately after. _No! No! NO!_ He shouted at himself, practically sighing with relief when she lay down on her stomach.

                The last time he’d done this, it had been nearly pitch in her room, but this time it was merely dim, a little sunlight leaking in through her blinds. Now he could see a smattering of scars over her back, and he wondered if her chest was just as bad. He’d been so focused on her breasts that she could have been bleeding out and he wouldn’t have noticed. Vegeta started on her spine as he studied the marks with interest, and there was an imperceptible pause when he spotted twin scars on her right shoulder. “How did you get these?” He asked softly, his eyes glancing suspiciously to her jean-clad thigh as he remembered another woman that would likely have the same scars on her back.

                “Gunshot wounds,” she replied absently, in too much pain to come up with a conceivable lie.

                “And the one on your thigh was…?”

                “Same,” she mumbled.

                Vegeta froze before reaching down and touching the place that he now knew he’d stitched up for her over a month ago. She’d said it had been from a childhood accident… **_not_** a gunshot. “Oh, damn woman. You get shot an awful lot,” he snorted, trying for a nonchalant, untroubled tone. His mind, however, was reeling. _She’s Sailor Moon! I’ve been patching her up this entire time, and she’s been living right under my fucking roof! Right across the hall!_

                No wonder his inner Saiyan was reacting to her so strongly; it knew her on sight, no matter what form she took, no matter how well his other senses were fooled. The beast knew its mate on sight and smell despite the glamour.

                As if to confirm his suspicions, Vegeta’s finger brushed over her side and immediately located the light indentation from where she’d been stabbed in the kidney. That only clinched his theory; she was definitely Sailor Moon, and he was positive he’d find another long scar down the top of her quadriceps if she took off her pants. Oh… as soon as he got over this initial shock, he and Usagi were going to have a nice, _long_ talk… full of yelling and curse words she’d probably never heard in her life.

                _I’m going to kill her._

####################

                “Hey, Vegeta!”

                “Not right now, Kakarot,” the prince growled without missing a beat in the kata he was flying through at record speed. He was at level three, the gravity turned up as high as it could go, and he still couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything except the fact that his PA was also Sailor Moon. “I’m thinking, damn it.”

                “Oh, so that’s what I smelled burning,” Goku teased, stepping up to join in on the movements he knew all too well, ascending rapidly so that he could keep pace with his long-time training partner. “I felt your ki fluctuating, you know.”

                Vegeta grit his teeth and kept going; Kakarot didn’t need to add anything further to that statement. Both of them knew without a doubt when something was bothering the other one, they’d been able to sense the change in their energy signatures for years. Neither of them were exactly sure how they knew, but they’d theorized that fusion had had something to do with it, especially since Goten and Trunks seemed to share the same kind of mental link.

                That was how Kakarot had known Bulma had died; he’d sensed it moments after Vegeta had found her slumped over her workbench, cold and still. And he’d IT’d straight over and had taken them both to the nearest hospital. But it had been too late; even hooked up to machines that had brought her body back to life, Vegeta had felt the lack of his mate’s mind on the other side of the bond. She’d been dead, and they’d been too late to save her.

                Ever since then, when Vegeta’s ki seemed off, meaning that he was either upset or pissed off, Kakarot had checked in on him like some sort of mother hen. Today was apparently no exception.

                “Ok, Vegeta. What’s eating you?” Goku finally asked after two hours of simply going through exercises. “Is everything ok with Trunks? I know he’s been acting a little… immature lately, but—“

                Vegeta stopped moving and cut Goku off with a wave of his hand. “Trunks is fine, Kakarot. We had a talk. Just drop it.”

                Goku frowned and shook his head as he felt Vegeta’s ki continue to pulse with anger. “No, Vegeta, I won’t drop it. Not when something’s clearly got you bothered.” When Vegeta shook his head again and his hair reverted to black, Goku followed suit and wracked his brain.

                He was the expert on everything Vegeta, right up there with Trunks, and the only things that got Vegeta this pissed off were his son and his training. At least since Bulma had died, anyway. Bulma had been the only person on the planet to get him so riled that he wouldn’t talk, so— “Oh, shit. Vegeta… is it a woman?” He asked delicately.

                Apparently not delicately enough, judging by the ki blast that answered his question and sent him flying into the wall. Goku coughed and slid to the floor, trying not to laugh at Vegeta’s reaction. “Well, guess that answers it… who is it? Where did you meet her?”

                “I. Said. Drop. It. Kakarot.”

                “No, I won’t drop it. You know just as well as I do that you need to talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you. Or at least talk to _her_. And since you’re not screaming your head off at her right now, she either doesn’t know what she’s done wrong, or she doesn’t even know that you care for her. She _does_ know… right?” Goku quickly and easily dodged a second ki blast; he’d been ready for it that time, and Vegeta wouldn’t get any more free shots. “Why don’t you tell her, Vegeta? Then you can yell and rant and rave at her like you want to.”

                “ ** _Because I can’t tell her, Kakarot!_** ” Vegeta yelled, throwing another shot his way. He curved it when the bigger Saiyan dodged it and hit him in the chest, pummeling him into the wall once more.

                “Ok, damn it. That one hurt a little,” Goku huffed as he climbed to his feet. “Why can’t you tell her, Vegeta?” At the defeated look on the older Saiyan’s face, he sighed and carefully approached him, laying a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “If you don’t tell her that you like her, that inner beastie’s just going to get out of hand and you’ll wind up jumping her and scaring her to death.”

                “I know,” he grunted in response, looking away from his rival and only friend.

                “You know, Vegeta… Bulma would want you to be happy,” Goku said gently. “Is that why you can’t say anything?”

                “Part of it,” he admitted grudgingly. But only a small part. Vegeta knew his mate was dead and would never wish him to live the next few hundred years alone, but after so long without having a woman by his side, he felt clueless as to how to broach the subject with Usagi. And as much as he hated to admit it, Kakarot was right; now that he knew Usagi and Sailor Moon were one and the same, his beast was practically roaring at him to stake his claim.

                “And the other part?”

                “I don’t want to talk about it, Kakarot. Please just drop it.”

                The fact that Vegeta had actually said the magic word made Goku clamp is mouth shut and nod. “Alright, fine. But you should tell her, Vegeta. Let her know that you want her before you wind up accidentally hurting her.”

                “I’ll think about it.”

###########################

                After a few more hours, Vegeta finally came in after flying around aimlessly to clear his head, and he found Usagi in the living room, shades drawn, glasses on, watching something grainy on TV that looked like video footage. “What is that?” He asked tersely, itching to confront her. But not while she was ill; he’d wait until he could yell and scream at her for an hour straight.

                Usagi smiled wistfully and removed her glasses to look up at him with tear-filled blue eyes. “This is one of Trunks’s debates from middle school. Didn’t you go to this one?”

                Vegeta frowned and looked away guiltily. “I didn’t go to any of those school things,” he admitted, sitting down next to her. “Who’s filming this?” He asked slowly, focusing on the boy who was heatedly arguing on the screen, and clearly winning by the looks on the judges’ faces.

                “I am,” she said softly. “I taped them all. You mean… you’ve never watched any of these? They were sitting right there on the shelf, Mr. Briefs. I pull them out every once and awhile and watch them when I’m feeling nostalgic.” Usagi sighed and squeezed his shoulder when the look of guilt on his face intensified. “Sorry, Mr. Briefs. I… I didn’t mean to…”

                “No, it’s fine, woman. I should have been there, at least for some of them.”

                “But hey, you know… you were there whenever he was in those tournaments, right? The World Tournaments? I didn’t get a chance to go to those since they always fell during the workday, but you were there for him then. That’s something,” she said a little more cheerily.

                Vegeta smirked at the memory of those matches and nodded. Maybe… maybe they should bring her into the fold and explain everything, like Kakarot had done for Videl. “Kakarot taped them all, if you’d like to watch them sometime,” he said simply. “He won nearly every year. Until he reached the adult division,” Vegeta added with an evil little chuckle.

                “Who won when he—oh,” Usagi snickered. “Well, I definitely would love to watch those, too, Mr. Briefs. It should be entertaining to watch you both whoop on each other.”

                “Feh, woman. It wasn’t much of a whoopin’ on his part. I trounced that boy and put his ass in its place.” Vegeta blinked when she rubbed her eyes a little and slid her sunglasses back down. “Still hurting?”

                “Hai,” she sighed. “I’m just… stressed out,” she admitted. “I’ll be fine, though. Those pills are helping a little.”

                “Did they make you loopy?”

                “I’m sitting here watching sentimental shit instead of working, aren’t I?” Usagi snorted. “I’m loopy as shit if I’m not even trying to pound away at the damned keyboard, or trying to—“ Her eyes went a little wide when Vegeta crushed his lips to hers in a kiss, but she ceased her initial struggle when the back of his hand caressed her cheek and he pulled her closer.

                “You talk too much,” he grunted before kissing her once more, his tongue lining the crease of her mouth to beg entrance. Vegeta moaned a little when she opened to him and their tongues began a slow, gentle duel, but when he bunched his fist in her hair and she flinched in pain, he pulled back. “Sorry,” he whispered. “Your head… forgot.”

                His hand moved to soothe the hurt, but the spell had been broken and Usagi was sliding away from him, her mouth a trembling line. “No, Mr. Briefs, this… this is wrong. I shouldn’t have let this happen,” she whispered shakily.

                “Woman, you _didn’t_ let anything happen,” Vegeta snorted in annoyance, fighting the urge to drag her into his lap and really turn things up a notch. “You stopped me before I could get that far.”

                “Please don’t do that again,” she said meekly, looking at him over her glasses despite the pain in her head.

                “Woman, I—Kami, can’t you see that I want you? Why don’t you just—“

                “No,” Usagi said flatly. “You’re my boss, Mr. Briefs. That’s all and nothing more. You know very well that it can’t go beyond that. Ever.”

                “Fine,” Vegeta snapped, standing from the couch to stalk out of the room.

 

 

############################

 

“Woman.”

                Usagi blinked at the sound of Vegeta’s voice rumbling from behind her, and blushed to find him standing in the opening of his bedroom door, dressed only in a pair of those tight workout shorts that always made her want to drool. “Mr. Briefs,” she replied carefully. She clutched her robe a little tighter, all too aware of the fact that she was only wearing a pair of underwear beneath it, feeling more than a little vulnerable with her hair undone and cascading to the floor around her. “Did you need something, sir?”

                Gods, if she only knew… well, she was about to, damn it. Even the Prince of all Saiyans could only take so much, and for once in his pitiful life, Kakarot was right. He had to tell her somehow, put an offer on the table that she wouldn’t be able to ignore. She could ignore than hot, raw kiss in the living room, fine. But this was a blatant offer to share each other’s company. “Would you mind if I was blunt for a moment?” He smirked when she snorted and laughed; ok, fine, he was _alway_ s blunt. “I want you, and if you would be interested in—“

                “No,” Usagi said flatly, surprising herself. Hadn’t she been thinking about how sexy he was for the last few weeks? Ever since he’d kissed her as Sailor Moon, and then that afternoon, she’d been wondering if he was just as skilled in other areas as he was with his mouth. “I’m flattered,” she added softly, unable to hide her blush, “but it would be a very bad idea, sir.”

                “Can’t you separate work from play, woman?” Vegeta asked, putting on his best come-hither smile when she began to fiddle with the ties of her robe. She hadn’t punched him in the face, and she wasn’t running away, ranting her head off at him, so that told him that she was definitely interested. Just… hesitant. Perhaps he could persuade her into some sort of arrangement that she’d be comfortable with, get her used to him taking her to his bed, and then he could finally broach the subject of a permanent arrangement. It had worked with Bulma, and it might work with Usagi… he hoped.

 “Look,” he began, “it’s been awhile. Probably for both of us, and I could use some relief…  I’d be more than willing to return the favor, too. A few times,” he added with a little smirk. He could see her practically licking her chops at the prospect, but wasn’t surprised when she shook her head. “Well, it’s both our losses, then… if you change your mind, I never lock my door.”

                Usagi couldn’t help but glance over when he turned to close his door behind him, and practically sighed. Gods, she could bounce a penny off of his ass, it was so damned tight. _I think I’m officially the world’s biggest idiot,_ she thought to herself. _I just turned down what has to be the hottest piece of man I’ve ever laid eyes on. Twice in one day, too._

Duty called, however, and if Vegeta had approached her on any other night, she might not have been able to turn him down. Not after she’d had several hours to think over what had happened in the living room.

But she had work to do that night, since her period had just ended, and she had a gut feeling that she’d regret putting it off any longer than she had. Usagi quickly slung her hair back in a braid and threw on jeans, a tight-fitting T-shirt, hoody, and running shoes. The perfect clothes for an escape should she be forced to detransform and blend with people on the streets.

                Usagi slipped out her window silently so as not to alert her housemates and sprinted for the tree line before transforming and hastily teleporting to the same windowsill she’d sat on several times before. The room she’d been looking into was no longer a bustle of activity; it was absolutely quiet. “Hate to waste the energy for this, but…” She teleported again— this time into the room— since she didn’t want to break a window and risk setting off an alarm or alerting someone on another floor with the noise. “Fuck me running, that’s a lot of guns,” she breathed at the sight of a stack of crates to the ceiling.

                Sailor Moon carefully and quietly slid the top off of one, and blinked when her eyes simply met packing material and nothing more. “Where in the hell are all the guns, then…?”

                “Right here,” a low voice said from behind her. Usagi felt her heart hit the floor and leapt behind the stack of crates as a hail of bullets ripped through the air, and knew without a doubt that she was completely fucked.

               

####################

                “Thank you, Vegeta.”

                He grunted and nodded at the sight of all the blood on the floor; he’d patched her up with a senzu yet again, had healed several bullet wounds this time. She’d been white as a sheet when he’d found her on the floor, crumpled directly under the window she’d crawled through, and he knew in the far recesses of his mind that he’d gotten there just in time to save her life. “Moon woman… I feel I have every right to state my opinion, considering how many times we’ve been through something like this.”

                Sailor Moon sighed wearily, wishing that she’d simply opened her subspace and fished out a senzu. But she’d thought she had time to get to him and had wasted energy teleporting instead, only to find that she was dying and didn’t have enough strength to open her subspace pocket and save herself. Vegeta had been just in time, had truly saved her life. And he probably knew it, too.

“I knew this was coming. And before you say anything, I **_am_** careful, Vegeta. More careful than you can even imagine. If I was any **_less_** careful, I’d likely be dead in an alleyway somewhere in the city.” When he merely grunted again, she slid off the table onto slightly shaky legs. “Besides, it doesn’t matter; I won’t be bothering you anymore.”

                “Excuse me? If I ever indicated you were a bother, woman, you would have _known_ it,” Vegeta growled. And then she turned and smiled at him, her eyes so sad and resigned that he instantly knew what she was thinking. “No. Don’t you _dare_ ,” he hissed, pointing an accusatory finger in her direction as he stalked towards her. “You are not going back, and you are not going to do what I think you are. I’ll beat your ass down from Yemma’s myself if you wind up dead.”

                “I’m not going in with the intention of getting killed, Vegeta… but it seems to be one of my few options. There’s just too many of them… and I need to make a stand.” She sighed heavily and looked away for a moment before standing on her toes to kiss him on the mouth, her gloved hand brushing over his cheek. She wasn’t surprised to feel him leaning into it; she’d been fairly sure that he wanted her in this form just as much as he did in the other, even if he didn’t know her and Usagi were one and the same. “Thank you, Vegeta. For everything. I’ll call if I make it out. If I don’t… then well, just remember me. That’s all I ask.”

                “Like anyone would forget you, woman.” His fingers tangled in her hair as he drew her to him for another kiss, this one firmer and not nearly as chaste as the first. “Stay,” he finally whispered against her lips. “You don’t have to go, Moon. Come upstairs and stay with me.” He kissed her again before she could respond, pushing every ounce of heat and passion into it that he felt for her, and when he felt her return it with just as much fervor, he began to edge them towards the door that led to the stairs.

                Coming to her senses, she gently pushed him away with trembling hands and shook her head. “No, Vegeta. I know where they’re at tonight and it can’t wait. They could change location at any time and it originally took me a week to track them down. They’re near the center of the slums and the PD, and the building they’re in is easy for me to access. I’m sorry…” She brushed at the tears trailing down her cheeks as she turned away. “I wish this could have turned out differently, Vegeta… I really do.”

                Vegeta scowled as he heard her whisper “good bye” from outside the window, and suddenly knew what he needed to do. “Sat on the sidelines for far too long, old son,” he muttered to himself. “It’s time to get back in the game.”


	6. Chapter 6

Ok, damn it. He had to do something. He couldn’t just sit on his ass and do nothing while that woman was going out to face certain death at the hands of a bunch of stupid, powerless humans. The only reason they’d succeed in killing her anyway would be through sheer numbers and superior firepower. “Time to even the odds, assholes,” Vegeta rumbled to himself as he stalked upstairs to his room and opened his closet.

                He donned a black sleeveless shirt, a pair of black jeans, and tugged on his black fingerless gloves before trying to figure out how in the hell to disguise his face, and finally grabbed a black ballcap from the shelf. It was one of his son’s and he had no clue how it had wound up among his own things, but it would do. At least, he thought it would, until he put it on and it immediately popped off his head from the force of his hair springing up. “Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me,” he muttered.

                Vegeta stared at himself in the mirror for a long moment, weighing his options as he raked his fingers through his hair. “It’s just too recognizable,” he decided aloud. “Well… Bulma hounded me for years… I guess she’ll be gloating from Yemma’s when she learns that she finally got her fucking way,” he chuckled, smirking at the memory of his dead mate bugging the shit out of him regularly to cut his hair. Still smirking, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his only friend while he threw on the fresh change of clothes. “Yeah. I need you to IT here right now, Kakarot. I need a favor.”

                Goku was there immediately, looking around for some sort of danger. “Huh… what’s up, Vegeta? No offense, but the last time you asked **_me_** for help, you were on death’s door.”

                “Shut up, Kakarot,” Vegeta snorted, beckoning for him to follow. He went into the bathroom and pulled out a pair of clippers, sighing at his reflection. “I don’t think I can do it,” he admitted. “But you… at least you know what it means… how _permanent_ this sort of thing is…”

                The taller Saiyan’s eyes went wide as he slowly took the clippers from Vegeta and shook his head in wonder. “You’re really going to cut it?” He asked softly. “Why?”

                “There’s no time to explain, Kakarot,” Vegeta answered with a sigh. “Just do it. Please,” he added quickly. “And **_try_** not to make me look like an idiot. You know it won’t grow back, damn it.”

                “Ok…” Goku replied slowly, studying Vegeta’s hair carefully. “How short?”

                “Short enough to be able to hide my face with a ballcap.”

                “Vegeta… if you need help with whatever this is—“

                “No,” he responded flatly, his tone leaving absolutely no room for argument. “This is a personal matter. Just do it, and fast. I’ve only got maybe a half-hour before—“

                “Tell me later,” Goku said firmly, cutting on the clippers. If Vegeta was actually willing to cut his hair for _anything_ , it had to be ridiculously important. “You said there’s no time, so just tell me later. And hold still so I don’t ruin this.”

                Vegeta nodded once and squinted his eyes shut tightly as he felt the shears buzz through his hair and black locks brushing against his neck before rolling to the floor. He was surprised when the clippers shut off after only two minutes and hesitantly cracked open his eyes, expecting his hair to be totally butchered. He was surprised, however, to find that he actually didn’t completely hate the new look. It still looked Saiyan and spikey, only it was nearly eight inches shorter. “Not half-bad, Kakarot.”

                “Come over whenever all of this is done and I’ll have Chi-Chi touch it up,” Goku offered, handing him the ballcap. “And that’s not going to completely hide your face, you know.”

                Vegeta put it on after brushing away the stray hairs on his neck and shoulders and swore. “Damn it, you’re right. It was all for nothing.”

                “No, it wasn’t. Hang on. I’ll be back in a few seconds.”

                Vegeta didn’t have time to answer when Kakarot disappeared and reappeared a few short moments later with a black bandanna in hand. “Dear Kami, I’ll look like an idiot,” he muttered.

                “Red Ribbon Army, only in black,” Goku chuckled, tying it around Vegeta’s face so that only his obsidian eyes showed. “You need me to IT you somewhere?”

                “Actually… yes, Kakarot. That would be helpful. Just let me grab something first.” Vegeta darted over to his dresser and snagged a bag of senzu from it, shoved it in his pocket, then turned back to the taller Saiyan. “Alright, Kakarot, let’s go. The South City slums, close to the police department. I’ll have to find the building from there.”

                Without question, Goku took him where he asked, transporting them to a dark alleyway where they wouldn’t be spotted. “You’ll call me if you need my help, right?” He asked, the concern in his voice impossible to ignore.

                To ask Kakarot for more help would destroy his pride, but for her… “Yes, I will. But I don’t think I’ll need it,” he added. “And Kakarot? Thank you,” Vegeta said quietly, the sincerity in his voice ringing out in the dark. “I won’t forget this.”

                “Hey, no prob,” he replied with a shrug of embarrassment. Getting thanked by Vegeta didn’t happen often! “I’ll go home now and keep my phone on. Call me when it’s over if you don’t need backup.”

                “Will do."

                The moment Kakarot was gone, Vegeta lifted into the air under the cover of darkness for an aerial view, and his pulse picked up a bit when he saw a flash of gunfire from a tall building only a block away. “Fuck me running, she’s already started,” he whispered. If anyone else had been there, they would have heard the raw fear in his voice, but Vegeta denied it as he was prone to do as he shot like a bat out of hell for the window he’d focused on.

                He erupted with a crash into a room filled with the sounds of battle and wasted no time in homing in on Sailor Moon’s ki in the dark. She was taking cover behind a turned over metal table on the far side of the room, and that was where Vegeta headed first, flashing past her with blinding speed, erecting a ki shield around her that would be impenetrable to any bullets before he darted back around, fluidly dodging shots as he moved from one man to the next, breaking necks and crushing skulls. “You ok?” He asked quietly once the room was silent.

                Sailor Moon trembled at the sound of his voice, low and disguised. She didn’t recognize it, but she had heard the screams of the men he’d effortlessly killed. “Who are you?”

                “A… friend. Did you get hit?” Vegeta slowly stepped up to the table and peeked around it, only to get kicked in the face. “Ow! Damn it, onna! I saved your life and that’s the thanks I get!?” He yelled, still having the presence of mind to throw his voice a little so it didn’t sound like him.

                “S—Sorry,” she replied shakily, crawling on her hands and knees to poke her face around the table and look up at him. “It was a reflex. Here, let me help.” Sailor Moon stood on trembling legs as she took his hand and filled him with her healing light, and quickly released him when he nodded.

                “Was that all of them?” Vegeta asked, looking around the room. “That seriously can’t be all of them,” he added under his breath.

                “There’s more coming, I’m sure,” she whispered. “I heard a few of them making calls when the fighting started. I got at least a dozen of them before they pinned me down.”

                “Not bad for a girl,” Vegeta admitted grudgingly. “Grab a gun and follow me, then.”

                “I… um… I don’t use guns,” she whispered, blushing in embarrassment. “I know, it sounds stupid, but—“

                Vegeta cut her off by dumping an automatic rifle in her gloved hands and checking it over for her quickly. “It’s got a full magazine and a bullet’s already chambered. You just point and spray with this model.”

                “I know. I never said I hadn’t fired a gun, I just said that I don’t use them,” she huffed with a roll of her eyes.

                “Good, then let’s get moving. I’ll take point and you cover me,” he ordered.

                “Hang on.” Sailor Moon switched the gun over from automatic before nodding. “I’m out of practice, but I used to be a good shot. If I’m just covering you, I’ll be of more use as a sniper.”

                Vegeta lifted a brow before nodding slowly. Apparently there were a few things he still didn’t know about this woman. “Let’s go, then. We’ll find a more suitable place to make a stand when they show.”

                “There’s an office upstairs with lots of cubicles,” she offered, slinging the rifle over her shoulder as she searched a couple bodies for extra ammo. “It’ll have plenty of places for us to hide, but it’ll give them hiding places, too.”

                “They can’t hide from me,” he replied, his eyes glittering with Saiyan bloodlust. “I can sense their kis. And speaking of which, they’re pulling up out front. Come on,” he said quickly, scooping her up and flying up the stairwell despite her protests and the way she was clinging to him.

                “You can fly!?”

                “Yes, now shut up and find a spot that’s got a good view of the entrance. Let a few of them get in here before you open fire, though. There’s…” Vegeta shut his eyes and focused on the kis entering the ground floor. “…I sense about thirty of them. Maybe forty. They’re packed too close for me to tell without wasting more time.”

                “I’m in position,” she said from behind him, setting up the gun so that it was propped up and aimed at the doorway.

                Vegeta was darting around the room, checking the other doors and blocking them off with his Saiyan speed, and he finally moved back to her side. He looked over at her when he faintly scented blood. “I thought you said you weren’t hit.”

                “Eh, I got nicked a little, is all.” Usagi turned so he could see her leg. “See, barely a scratch. Burned like hell, but they practically missed me.”

                He nodded in agreement, the wound wouldn’t even need stitches, it was so shallow. But he didn’t get to make further comment when the doorknob to the room jiggled, and he moved from her side so quickly she couldn’t even spot him.

                Vegeta nearly yelled at her when the door swung open and a single shot rang out; the Triad that had opened the door crumpled right to the floor with a weeping hole in his forehead. Then a second fell, and a third, and when she stopped, he understood that she was making it harder for them to enter the room since they would have to step over bodies on their way in.

                “What’s happening up there!?” A gang member yelled from the stairwell.

                “The bitch has got a gun and is set up aimed right at the doorway!” One of them yelled back from the other side of the doorway.

                Usagi smirked a little as she felt her skill coming back to her, and repositioned a little to aim at the wall to the right of the door before squeezing the trigger a single time and moving it back over. “Damn, Moon,” she heard Vegeta breathe from his hiding place, when the sound of a falling body met their ears.

                “She shot Han in the head right through the wall, boss!” One of them yelled. Another shot rang out after a few moments, and Vegeta heard the remaining Triads scurry away from the wall they were up against when the second one that had spoken fell to Usagi’s superior aim.

                “Mako would be proud,” Usagi whispered to herself as she checked her magazine to see how much ammo she had left before putting it back in the gun and aiming for the door once more. She knew she wouldn’t get anymore easy shots like the last two; they’d finally had the sense to go back down the stairs a little while they were clearly formulating a plan in Chinese.

                “Mako?” Vegeta whispered from across the room.

                “A friend,” she breathed right back. “She was a great fucking shot, she even shot for the shooting team in college. She taught me how, and when I picked up on it quickly she had me join. Only fucking sport I was ever any good at,” she added with a chuckle. “Too bad we didn’t have a Frisbee team. I would have kicked ass and taken names at that, too.”

                She didn’t have time to comment when a voice yelled up the stairs at them. “Bitch, we’ve got you pinned in, and you’re not getting out of here. So just surrender and we’ll kill you quickly! If not… I’m sure a few of Han and Ling’s friends would be more than happy to take out their frustration on you.”

                Vegeta signaled for her to keep quiet so as not to give away her position, and pointed to the wall to the right of the door when he felt the kis of several men move closer.

                “Where exactly?” She mouthed.

                Quicker than her eye could follow, Vegeta moved to a spot, stopped and nodded, then moved to another, and another, and another, giving her enough time to memorize them before moving out of the way.

                Four shots rang out, each of them less than a second apart, and Vegeta smirked and nodded when they heard the bodies fall and a chorus of shouts and threats go up from the other men waiting in the stairwell.

                She jumped a little when he was at her side, still moving too fast for her to see. “They’re not stupid enough to move in again like that,” he breathed in her ear. “They’ll probably leave now.” Judging by the way she grit her teeth, Vegeta could tell that that notion didn’t sit well with her. “Fight another day, Moon.”

                “No, damn it,” she snarled back at him under her breath. “I came here with the intention of wiping them out, and if my ears are correct, that’s the big boss down there, Mr. Chen. I want him and all of his men dead at my feet.”

                The prince nodded slowly and let his inner Saiyan take over almost all the way; it immediately began to calculate the best way to approach and take out the remaining twenty-odd men without getting hit. “Stay put, then. And stay down. I may need your healing powers after this, so we can’t afford for you to get shot.”

                “See if you can draw them into my line of fire… whatever your name is.”

                “Names aren’t important, Moon. And this won’t last long enough for you to get more than a couple shots off. Just keep your head down and don’t even peek over the cubicle.”

                She looked up at him and pecked him on his cheekbone, just above his bandana. “Be careful,” she whispered.

                “I will. Just stay down and don’t look… I may have to do something that could give away who I am.”

                Completely understanding his desire for anonymity, Sailor Moon nodded, sat on the floor, and closed her eyes. “All yours, big man.”

                Vegeta merely grunted before moving at full speed without ascending, darting out the door while focusing on the kis around him rather than using his eyes. He didn’t have time for that, not if he didn’t want to get shot. And when bodies started falling by his hand, bullets started flying, spraying wildly once they realized that they couldn’t follow his movements.

                He growled in anger when one actually hit him in the right side of his chest, and immediately erupted into ki flames of gold, now moving so fast that he could actually dodge the bullets flying around him as he snapped men in half like dried kindling.

                Usagi trembled a little when the gunshots stopped after only thirty seconds or so and a single set of footsteps approached her hiding spot. She let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding when her mysterious hero knelt beside her and his eyes smiled at her. “Thank Kami, I was worried for a moment. Are you alright?” She asked, placing her hands on his chest before he could answer. She found the wound in moments by using her powers and frowned in concentration as she began to heal him in such a way that the bullet was forced out of him before closing. God, he was soaked in blood, she realized. “I don’t want to look down there, do I?” She asked knowingly.

                “No,” he grunted, “you don’t. I went into a bit of a rage mode when they fucking shot me,” he admitted. “Come on,” he ordered, scooping her up. “We’ll go out the window.”

                “Hang on,” Usagi responded, sliding out of his arms. With a little bit of the blood on the floor, she drew a large crescent moon on the wall to signal to the cops that she’d been there. “There, let’s go.”

                Vegeta couldn’t help but be a little taken with the huge blue eyes focused on his face during their short flight, and when they landed, he was floored as she lifted the edge of the bottom of his bandana. “No,” he said quickly, pulling out of her reach.

                “Not that. I won’t look. Just trust me,” she whispered, closing the gap between them once more and shutting her eyes. She felt him flinch as she lifted the edge up once more, and before he could react she kissed him briefly on the lips. “Thank you,” she said softly, lowering the cloth before she opened her eyes. “You saved my life.”

                “Anytime,” he replied quietly, more than a little aroused by the lingering tingle left on his mouth. Vegeta couldn’t help but lick his lips a little, and his beast groaned happily in response to the taste of her, immediately wanting more. “Were you planning anymore stupid acts of heroic suicide?” He asked when she turned to leave.

                Usagi hesitated and chewed on her lower lip before turning her head. “Meet me back here in three nights…” She grinned and winked at him. “…if you’re interested in getting shot at some more. You’ll know I’m on my way when the moon comes out.”

####################

                Goku opened his door at the sound of a quiet knock and gaped at the man standing before him. “Holy shit, Vegeta! Did you bathe in someone’s blood!?”

                “Dozens of someones,” he grunted, and removed his bandana to frown at Goku when the taller Saiyan glared at him angrily, obviously pissed to hear that Vegeta had taken human lives. “I’ll explain in a minute, Kakarot, but I can’t go back home looking like this.”

                “Chi-Chi’s visiting her dad overnight,” Goku finally said, after debating on whether to trust Vegeta long enough to let him explain. Beating the shit out of people, yeah. He could understand that, even condone it in certain cases. But killing people!? That was crossing the line, and Vegeta knew damned well how he felt about that. “Come on, float over the carpet so you don’t track blood,” he ordered sternly, his face naked with suppressed fury.

                “Thanks, Kakarot.” Vegeta shed his clothes in the bathroom and dumped them into a garbage bag that the taller Saiyan held open for him, then climbed in the shower and used his Saiyan speed to scrub himself clean in under a minute before drying himself with his ki. He found a fresh pair of jeans and a muscle shirt waiting for him, and gave his friend a look of gratitude when he realized that Kakarot must have IT’d to his room and brought them back for him.

                “Now, Vegeta… you’d better explain… and I’d choose my words carefully, or you’ll be picking your teeth out of the wall,” he growled, only angrier after he’d had a few minutes to think over the implications of Vegeta going on a killing spree.

                “I was helping Sailor Moon,” he replied simply, satisfied to see most of the suspicion melt from Goku’s face.

                “So, it’s true then… she’s started killing people,” Goku whispered sadly.

                “She doesn’t have a _choice_ , Kakarot!” Vegeta snapped, a little taken aback at how defensive he was feeling on her behalf. “She’s been tying up these damned gang members for **_years_** , only to have them released a couple days later. She hasn’t been doing the people of South City any fucking good by showing these bastards mercy!”

                “But the _cops_ …” He said softly, in total disbelief. “…they’re corrupted then, aren’t they?”

                “Yes,” Vegeta said flatly. In the back of his mind, though, he was a little impressed at Kakarot’s deductive abilities; he honestly hadn’t thought the bigger man would have drawn such an accurate conclusion so quickly. “They’re killing innocents, Kakarot. They’re not exactly Frieza and the Ginyu Force, or any of the other insanely powerful enemies we’ve fought, but they’re all cut from the same damned cloth. Murderers and tyrants, every single one of them. I was caught in a drive by with Usagi the day I fired her, and I’m telling you now, these people don’t give a shit **_who_** gets caught in the crossfire. They shoot enemies right along with children and the elderly, and they all deserve to die.”

                Leading Vegeta to the living room, Goku nodded gravely as he took a seat. “What happened tonight?”

                “She went in there on a fucking… **_kamikaze run_** ,” the prince sputtered in angry disbelief, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I have to thank you for getting me there so quickly, she was pinned down by gunfire when I found her, and she would have been dead if I’d taken much longer than I had. I cleared the room and we took a stand in a good position one floor up.” Vegeta grinned a little at that. “Turns out she’s a damned fine shot, I convinced her to use a gun and she was sniping those little bastards with a skill you only see on TV. I finally went out and killed the rest of them when it was obvious they weren’t going to let her get anymore easy kills.”

                Once he’d come to grips with the fact that what Vegeta was doing was likely necessary for the greater good, Goku patted his shoulder. “How’s it feel to be the hero for once?” He asked with a tiny smile.

                “Good,” Vegeta admitted with a touch of astonishment, the word flying from his mouth before he could stop it.

                “I don’t know whether to punch you or hug you for doing something like this, Vegeta,” Goku sighed, “but I think it might be the right thing to do. The gangs _are_ getting bad in South City, and I’ve wished for years that I could do something about it. But… I don’t like to kill.” He nodded slowly, as if coming to a decision. “Maybe this is the sort of thing you were meant for, Vegeta. Vigilante justice just might be your strong suit.”

                “Like Batman,” Vegeta laughed sharply. “I’m rich, I have nothing better to do with my time, I’m more than a little crazy, and—“

                “Hell no,” Goku cut him off with a grin. “You’re nowhere _near_ as cool as Batman. Besides, Sailor Moon’s in charge. You’re just the sidekick. Robin, maybe.”

                “Fuck no, Kakarot. Robin’s gay as hell.”

                “Huh. Who would I be, Vegeta?” Goku asked with innocent curiosity.

                “Superman,” he said without hesitation. “You’re both so damned **_good_** that it makes me sick,” Vegeta snorted. “I fucking hate Superman,” he added with a mutter. “But Batman’s fucking badass,” he finished with a smirk.

                “But Batman doesn’t kill,” Goku pointed out seriously.

                “Well, then I’m even _more_ badass than Batman,” Vegeta chuckled. “I just don’t get as much pussy as he does.”

                With a roll of his eyes, Goku tried not to laugh. “Of course you’d focus on the amount of sex a superhero would get… hey,” he added with a grin. “This afternoon, was Sailor Moon the woman—“

                “Nope. Don’t even say it, Kakarot, or I’ll break your nose.” Vegeta’s phone rang then, and he held up a hand in a request for silence as he answered the unknown number. “Hello?”

                “Hey, Vegeta.”

                “Moon,” he replied, faking a little sigh of relief. “Are you on your way in?”

                “Iie… I’m fine. I had… some help. Some very unexpected help,” she added with a light snort. “But he likely saved my life,” she finished with a whisper.

                “Then he has my gratitude,” Vegeta replied. Kami, he hated the phone, but to hear her voice, to be speaking with her again… “I’d say that I hope to see you again soon, but… that would mean you’d managed to get shot again,” he chuckled dryly.

                “Well, who knows… maybe you’ll see me around,” she answered cryptically. Vegeta knew what she meant and grinned; he was more than tempted to play the ‘I know something you don’t know’ game, but he didn’t feel like waking up with her foot in his ass.

                “Be careful, at least… and check in with me now and then if you remember,” he sighed, hating how he sounded like some love-sick puppy.

                “Hai, Vegeta. And thank you.”

                He sighed a little as he hung up, completely oblivious to his audience, but when he turned his head he found Kakarot grinning at him ecstatically. “Shut up, Kakarot. Don’t you even—“

                “Vegeta’s got a GIRLFRIEND!”

                “SHUT UP, KAKAROT!”

                Goku giggled and dodged around the house, ITing on occasion to get out of Vegeta’s reach, and finally laughed hysterically when Vegeta landed a punch to his face. “Oh, come on!” He cackled. “You owe me anyway, Vegeta! Come on, we’re friends, can’t you handle a little ribbing?”

                The prince stopped his fists in mid-air and huffed at his rival’s genuine smile. “Gods, Kakarot. Sometimes I hate your ass.”

                “So, she actually called you?” He asked curiously.

                “I’ve been patching her up on occasion at Capsule Corp, that’s how I knew she was going in on a suicide run, and that’s how she knew my cell phone number. Before I called you, I’d asked her to call me and let me know she was safe after the fight.”

                “Do you know who she really is?” Goku grinned when Vegeta nodded a little bit. “So, that’s why you were pissed off today. Who is she?”

                “No, Kakarot, that’s not for me to tell.”

                “Aw, fine. Are you going to tell her that you know? Maybe make a move?” Goku asked with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Heh, I could totally see you taking Sailor Moon as a mate, Vegeta. That would be a match made in heaven… er, well… a very bloody, _violent_ heaven.”

                Vegeta smirked at that and shook his head. “She’d kick my ass—or at least try to—if I made a move this soon, Kakarot.”

                “Well, then keep saving her life, Vegeta. That’s how Batman always gets the pussy, remember?”

###########################

                Trunks took one look at the pair sitting at the kitchen table and grinned for a moment before he realized that if anything had happened between the two, they’d look a hell of a lot happier than they did. “Long night?” And had Vegeta… cut his hair!? Trunks couldn’t even compute that fact just yet, he’d need at least five cups of coffee before he could even mention it.

                “Shut up,” they both grunted, followed by an exchanged glare at each other.

                _Why don’t these two just go fuck each other, already!?_ Kami, he wished he could say it aloud, but he knew he’d be in for an ass-kicking on both ends. Vegeta would likely hold him down while Usagi beat the shit out of him. _Kami, I could cut the sexual tension in here with a spoon._ “So… do I want to know what you were doing, Father? I’m pretty sure Usagi was whoring… or stripping… or whatever it is she does all night,” he teased.

                Another dangerous look from both of them over their coffee mugs had him grinning. “Just couldn’t sleep,” Vegeta grumbled. “Now shut up and make me something to eat, boy.”

                Usagi felt a twinge of guilt, knowing that worry for her had probably kept him up all night. He clearly cared, and last night had made her realize that, but she just couldn’t allow herself to feel more than affection for him, despite the fact that she felt an insanely strong attraction to him. _But he’s your boss, Usagi. Your boss. You can’t sleep with the boss._

                An idea occurred to her, and she felt her lips twitching up in a smile. He didn’t have to know it was her, though, right? And he clearly had a thing for Sailor Moon, too. Huh… was that a bad sign? That he was trying like hell to get up both their skirts at the same time? Was he just that hard up, or did he somehow know it was her on a subconscious level? Vegeta certainly didn’t strike her as a man that just slept around or hit on just anyone, so maybe that was the case. He couldn’t _possibly_ really know it was her, though, he was simply too arrogant to not throw it in her face the moment he discovered the truth.

                “Earth to Usa…”

                “Huh?”

                “Eloquent as always, woman,” Vegeta snorted into his food.

                Trunks set a plate in front of her and smiled. “You zoned out, Usa. I was asking what your plans were for today.”

                “Actually, all of the paperwork is done for the week, the invitations have been sent out for the party, and the new deal’s been set up… so I was thinking of doing a little shopping. Since my last trip got interrupted,” she added dryly.

                “Shopping for what?” Vegeta asked curiously.

                “A stripper pole. You were right, it would be easier to practice my routine at home.” Both of them laughed when Trunks blushed and huffed; at least they were a united front when it came to getting a rise out of the boy. “Just Christmas presents, stuff like that.”

                “In that case, go ahead and get the stripper pole, woman. I’d like to critique your dancing.” _That’s not the only pole I’d like to see you dance on._

“Heh… sorry Mr. Briefs, nothing but coal in your stocking this year.”

                “I’d like to stuff _your_ stocking,” Vegeta mumbled under his breath, making both Usagi and Trunks blush.

                “Hentai,” Usagi snorted. “Nice hair, by the way,” she added, noticing it for the first time. She’d been in a daze when she’d come downstairs, and the only thing she could focus on had been the coffeemaker and her customary seat at the table until she’d had a cup of that strong brew. “I thought you’d refused to cut it for years whenever Mrs. Briefs nagged you about it.”

                “Thought it was time for a change,” Vegeta grunted, suddenly feeling on the spot as she reached over and ran her hand over the cropped top of his hair.

                “Looks good,” Usagi decided with a genuine smile. “Makes you look younger, too. Feh… you still look cranky, though. A smile would improve the view, Mr. Briefs.”

                “I’ll smile when I’ve had more than three hours of sleep,” Vegeta grunted, hiding his pleasure at her approval of his new look.

                #####################

                “Ah, he must be special?”

                Usagi looked up from the garment she was considering and blushed to her toenails. “Uh… yeah. Sort of. He doesn’t exactly know,” she admitted aloud.

                “Well, honey. He’ll definitely know if you answer the door wearing _that_ ,” the saleswoman laughed.

                Fuck it, she was normally so private, but it would be helpful to have another woman’s opinion. “Actually… I was thinking about sneaking into his room and waking him up while wearing this.”

                “Between you and I, you’d better be ready for an all-night ordeal, girl. With your legs and hips, you’ll look stunning in this. Though… if I might make a suggestion?”

                Usagi shrugged. “Sure, it’s been a long time for me and I’ve never done this sort of seduction thing before.”

                The woman studied her closely before nodding. “Hair down, light makeup, and…” She grabbed Usagi by the hand and tugged her along to another section. “And wear… _these_ …” She added, picking up a pack of thigh highs with garters that would attach to the object in Usagi’s hand. “Though you might have to do most of the work while he tries to pick his eyeballs up off the floor,” she snickered.

                The thought of rendering Vegeta completely speechless and leaving him a puddle in the middle of his bed had Usagi grinning in anticipation. “I’ll take them.”

                Oh, it was going to be a _very_ Merry Christmas for a certain boss of hers. 


	7. Chapter 7

Usagi trembled a little as a very familiar face greeted her at the door with a grave set to his mouth. “Charlie,” she whispered.

                “Little sister.”

                Thinking fast, Usagi slipped outside with him and grabbed his hand, tugging him across the empty yard and behind a storage shed. He’d seen her in her civilian form, yes, but he actually knew who she was!? Oh gods… of course he did; if he was half-way as intelligent as she thought he was, he’d simply seen Vegeta with her and put two and two together. “My boss and my coworkers don’t know about me, Charlie,” she hissed. “Couldn’t you have contacted me another way?”

                The older man shook his head a little, still frowning. “I was sent,” he admitted. “They know who you are, and they…” His mouth trembled a little and he swallowed. “I’m sorry, little sister, but they didn’t just threaten me.”

                Usagi sagged against the wall of the shed and slid to the ground to hide her face in her hands. “You’ve got kids,” she said simply.

                “Yeah,” Charlie grunted. “I got five, and a wife. They got a message for you, girl. Here.” He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it over with a shake of his head. “You safe here, though, that’s somethin’. They knew they wouldn’t be able to make it onto the property, so they sent me instead.”

                She nodded a little before looking up at him with a tear-streaked face. “Charlie, do you have any money?” She asked softly.

                “Dun worry ‘bout me, little sister. We’ll be fine.”

                “No, Charlie… you won’t be. Here.” Usagi dug in her subspace and pulled out a wad of cash, everything that was left of her bonus. “Take it and get out of the city. Go straight home, pack all your shit, and take your wife and your kids and any other family somewhere far away with you. Before the Yakuza come back to tie up loose ends. Trust me, Charlie, they’ll kill you all if they think you’re a liability. There should be like, seven thousand dollars there; that’s more than enough for an apartment, food, whatever you need for a couple months if you’ve learned how to spread your cash like I have.”

                “I—I can’t—“

                “ ** _Take it_** ,” she hissed. “I don’t need it and your kids do, Charlie. I won’t have yours deaths hanging on my conscience, damn it.” Usagi took his hand and crammed the money into his hand before standing them both up and kissing him on the cheek. “Go home, Charlie, and do as I say or you’re going to have the bodies of your family for Christmas.”

                The old man nodded and sighed wearily. “You right, little sister. I’ll do it.”

                “Here.” Usagi yanked a pen and paper from her subspace and jotted down a phone number. “It’s untraceable. You call me as soon as you’re safe, understand me? And don’t forget, or I’ll come looking for you. And if I have to look for you, I’ll be _pissed_.”

                Charlie finally cracked a hint of a smile and hugged her. “Wouldn’t do to piss off Sailor Moon… I wouldn’t want my ass kicked.”

                “Exactly. Now go… I have to figure out what in the fuck I can do.”

                As soon as Charlie was walking back towards the gate, Usagi was sprinting for the house in a sheer fight or flight response, and before she could sit down and rationally go over everything calmly, she was throwing everything she had in her suitcases. She had to get out, that was the only option. Staying put not only Vegeta, but Trunks in danger, and everyone that she worked with. She’d find an apartment somewhere close if she could, work through the holiday to get ahead on the paperwork, and then she’d put in a notice and—

                “I don’t fucking think so, woman.” Vegeta grimaced when she whipped around and he saw the terrified, hunted look in her eyes, coupled with the tear tracks on her cheeks, and before he could stop it, his beast was in control, moving his feet forward. The prince pulled her into his arms and held her tightly as she broke down and cried into his chest, her fear coming out in huge, wracking sobs.

                So, this wasn’t about him and the offer he’d made last night, as he’d originally feared. “They found you,” he guessed softly.

                Usagi’s only response was to nod and cry harder as she clutched at his back and refused to look up at him.

                “You’re safe here, Usagi. They can’t get to you here. It would be best if you stayed. No, think about it with a clear head, woman,” he continued when she made a noise of protest. “Just wait and calm down, and then you can make a decision. But you’ll see I’m right. Capsule Corp is likely the most impenetrable place in Japan. They’d have a hell of a time getting through security, and then they’d have to go through me and Trunks to get to you. You’re not alone here like you were in the city.”

                “Which is why I have to go,” she choked. “They’ll kill you all to get to me, Vegeta.”

                A smirk played on his mouth as he heard her actually call him by his name, but he decided not to mention it as he bent his head and kissed her. “I’m a very hard man to kill,” he whispered hoarsely once he’d pulled away. “Trunks, too. If they actually have the cajones to show up here, they’re going to be in for one hell of a surprise.”

                “I haven’t once seen a gun on the compound,” she argued as she tried to get her tears under control. “How in the hell do you think you’re going to defend this place if—“ Usagi couldn’t help but lean into him when he cut her off with another kiss, this one more heated than the last.

                “You still talk too damned much, woman. Usagi, do you trust me?” Vegeta asked, his voice the gentlest she’d ever heard it.

                “I… yes, I do,” she said slowly, her eyes slipping shut as he stroked his thumb over her wet cheek and kissed her again. Kami, she could get used to kissing this man, and she was sorely tempted to just say “fuck it” and forget for one day that he was her boss.

                Vegeta ended the kiss with a nip to her lower lip, and waited until those gorgeous blue eyes were looking up at him once more. “Then trust me and stay. You may have been here for years, but there’s a lot you don’t know about us. And one of those things includes just how well we can defend this compound. **_No one_** is going to get to you here, I swear it. Just trust me.”

                “Ok,” she barely managed despite the lingering urge to pack her shit and run for the hills.

                “TRUNKS!” He roared, making her jump a little. Vegeta held up a hand when his son darted up the stairs with his Saiyan speed and gave them both a severely worried look. “All meetings are to be handled by you from now on, and anything else that involves leaving this property. Understand?”

                “Yes, Father,” he said promptly, giving him a sharp nod at the sight of that light in Vegeta’s eyes. There was trouble, no doubt about it. Then it dawned on him. “They found her, didn’t they?”

                “Yes. Usagi stays here no matter what, and anything that needs to be handled in the city is your responsibility. Also, make the proper calls to certain people and let them know that we’re on alert. I want someone we can trust on guard duty at the front at all times. I’ll even take a shift if that’s what needs to be done.”

                Holy shit, Vegeta wanted a Saiyan on duty at all times? This was fucking _serious_. “I’ll make the calls, Father.”

                When they were alone again, Vegeta fought down his beast and the demand running through him to take her to his bed and claim her. “Usa, you make a list of anyone that’s allowed through the gate to see you and give it to myself or the boy. Anyone not on that list will be turned away.” He sighed and rested his forehead against hers while he simply drew in her calming scent and fought down his inner Saiyan. “That American that I saw leave a little while ago… you want one of us to go after him?”

                “No,” Usagi said quickly. “He’s the one that got shot during the drive-by. They threatened his family to get him to deliver a message. I made sure that he had enough money to get his family far away from here before someone decides he’s a loose end.”

                “You didn’t give him your bonus, did you?” Vegeta grumbled, already knowing the answer.

                “I didn’t need all that money, Mr. Briefs. He did. Simple as that.”

                “I liked it better when you called me by my name, Usagi,” he purred, bending his mouth to slant over hers. Summoning up every ounce of skill he had, he kissed her like he was dying, his tongue tangling with hers as they both moaned at the contact, tipping her back onto the bed to come down on top of her, pressing his body tightly to hers.

                Apparently his skill wasn’t enough to shatter her defenses, though. The moment he tried to move to second base, she stiffened in his arms and he drew back with a sigh. “Damn it, woman. Am I that repulsive?”

                Usagi cracked a tiny smile and shook her head. “Just your personality,” she teased. She then blushed at the sight of his slightly tented pants and scrambled out of his arms. “I—I shouldn’t have let that happen,” she stammered. “I’m sorry.”

                “Once again, woman… you _didn’t_ let anything happen,” Vegeta snorted, sitting on the edge of the bed with a frustrated sigh. “You really need to get over the fact that I pay your salary,” he grumbled.

                “Never,” she countered—but not unkindly—feeling a bit better about her situation and a lot less panicky. She hated to admit it, but having him close like that… it had helped calm her nerves. But she couldn’t let their relationship go beyond that of boss and employee, and she hoped he knew that. But as far as Sailor Moon was concerned… Usagi hid a smirk at that thought; she needed to go out tonight, but soon enough, she’d be able to get him out of her system… if that’s just what this was, a mutual attraction. If not, she’d cross that bridge later on.

                “Come on, woman,” Vegeta ordered, breaking her out of her reverie, “I didn’t see you eat lunch.”

                “And Trunks didn’t see you trying to make out with me, either… thank Kami. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” she countered, instantly going on the defensive.

                “Fine, then. What did you eat?” He huffed. Vegeta stared her down, and he smirked in triumph when she was the first to look away. “That’s what I thought. At least you have the sense not to try and lie to me.” Ignoring her half-hearted protest, Vegeta dragged her from the bed, partially out of the need to relieve himself from the temptation to take her, and made her sit at the kitchen table while he rummaged through the fridge. He turned as a smell hit his nose, and found her taking a long draw on a lit cigarette. “That bad?”

                Usagi nodded and didn’t push him away when he ran a hand through her hair. “What if something happens to Trunks?” She worriedly aloud. “These people don’t care who they kill, Mr. Briefs. I feel like I’m sending a baby out to do my job. I—I know he’s not my son, but—“

                “Trunks is just as capable of fending for himself as I am, woman. Don’t worry about him for a moment. If I thought he was truly in danger, I’d go to those meetings myself. Now… I want you to answer a question, and I don’t want to hear ‘it’s personal’ as a response.”

                “I can’t make any promises, Mr. Briefs.” Usagi flicked her ashes in a cup on the table and took another drag, trying not to let her hands tremble.

                “What are they after?”

                “I—I can’t tell you that, I’m sorry. I just can’t.” God, would it be so bad to tell him about her secret? Would it really? Kami, he’d be so **_pissed_** , though! “At any rate, they’ll never find it.”

                Vegeta sighed and set a huge sandwich in front of her. “I thought you said you trusted me, woman.”

                “I do… but telling you this… it could make you a bigger target. No,” she added sharply, when he opened his mouth. “I don’t care how hard you are to kill, Mr. Briefs. I won’t endanger this household any further. And if that means you want me to leave, then fine. Honestly, I still think that that’s the best option.”

                Vegeta pulled up a chair and regarded her seriously, locking his obsidian eyes with hers. “Woman, you need to realize that there’s a time to run and a time to make a stand. And I think you’ve been running long enough.”

                “Father’s right,” Trunks said from the doorway, his grave expression matching Vegeta’s. “And this place is definitely the best choice to hole up, Usa. Just stay here and let us take care of you. You’ve been taking care of us for years; it’s our turn.”

                Usagi sighed and nodded, she was just too worn out to argue anymore. “Alright.”

#####################

                Usagi had just settled down in front of the TV with her laptop when the house phone rang, and she answered the portable in front of her. “Hello?”

                “Serenity. I trust you got my message?”

                That low, sexy, familiar voice would have made her fall over if she hadn’t already been sitting down, but her laptop crashed to the floor when she began to shake uncontrollably. “Leave me alone,” she choked out, immediately hanging up the phone.

                It only started ringing again, and unwilling to have Vegeta or Trunks answer it and discover her secret, Usagi picked it up.

                “That was awfully rude, hanging up on me, Serenity,” the voice drawled out. “But seeing as I’ve likely given you a bit of a shock, I’ll let it slide this once. So, how are you, my dearest?”

                “Don’t call me that,” she whispered. “I’m not your anything and I never was, Diamond. How are you even still alive?”

                “Trade secret,” he chuckled softly in her ear. “So, you didn’t answer me, beautiful. How are you?”

                “Just fucking fine,” she snapped, some of the steel in her spine returning as she got over the initial shock of hearing his voice again. “Still trying to bang my brains out, Diamond?”

                “Now, now, Serenity. Such vulgarities from a such a regal little mouth. It’s not becoming of you. And I prefer to call it making love, at any rate. But yes, you’re very much correct in your assumption. Of course, I’d also like the Silver Crystal as well. But I think I’d settle for you right now. It’s awfully lonely at the top of the Japanese mafia.”

                “My mouth isn’t—and never was—any of your concern. And you’d do well to leave me alone. You’ll never get what you want.”

                “Oh, I think I will. You see Serenity, I have quite a bit of leverage over you.”

                “Not as much as you think, asswipe. Tell my secret, I don’t even care anymore. I’ll cut and dye my hair and get contacts and move, like I did two years ago. I’ll change my name and run away to another country if I have to, and hole up so far out in the middle of nowhere that you’ll never find me.”

                Diamond chuckled again on the other end of the line. “Oh, no, Serenity. I’d never betray your little secret. It’s far too entertaining to watch you fight. Rather exhilarating, too, I might add. That short skirt has always done those gorgeous legs of your justice. Though I was concerned when you nearly got yourself killed by the Triads. You should be a little more careful.”

                A shock went through her then and she shook her head. “You—you mean that the one who saved me was one of **_your_** men!?”

                “Unfortunately, no. Though I’d sent Sapphire at that point to intervene. You were gone by the time he arrived, my dear. So… who was your little savior? Should I be jealous, sweetling?”

                “Ugh… get to the point, Diamond,” Usagi snapped, lighting a cigarette and venturing across the room for a clean ashtray that Bulma had once used. “I have work to do that’s a lot more important than your perverted delusions.”

                “The point? Alright. I know where your Senshi are. At least three of them, anyway. So you’d do well to comply and just give me what I want, and no one will get hurt.”

                She sat down hard on the floor and bit her lower lip at this unexpected turn of events. “Harm my girls, and I swear by the moon that I’ll kill myself. I’ll smash the crystal and I’ll use the Twin Sword.” She paused, and when he didn’t answer, she knew she had him. “And I don’t bluff, Diamond. Call this number again and I’ll run somewhere so far away that it’ll take you years to find me.”

                “Goodbye then, my dearest. I’ll see you soon.”

                Usagi hung up the phone in a hurry and ran into Vegeta as she blindly ran for the kitchen, but he caught her before she could fall after colliding with his solid chest. “You’re white as a sheet, woman. Who was that on the phone?”

                When she just shook in his arms and opened her mouth several times without answering, Vegeta scooped her up and carried her back to the couch and poured her a glass of something from a bottle hidden in the coffee table. “Drink this, woman. That’s it,” he encouraged when she began to chug it quickly. “Now settle down and then tell me what happened.”

                Usagi vigorously shook her head. She reached for her smoke, but finding it burned out, she tried to light another one, only to drop it. Her hands were just shaking too badly. She found the glass refilled and pressed to her lips again, and drank until it was empty before pressing herself tightly to Vegeta and burying her face in his chest, completely uncaring about how unprofessional it would seem. “I’ll go get Trunks,” he offered.

                “No,” she whispered. “Please don’t go. I feel safe with you.”

                Vegeta felt her trembling ease a little as he wrapped his arms around her tightly and he nodded silently into her hair. “Who was it?”

                “Someone that should have been dead. Someone I thought I’d killed when I was sixteen.”

                “What does he want, woman? Or is it that thing you can’t tell me about?” Vegeta sighed.

                “He wants **_me_** ,” she whispered, her voice heavy with terror.

                “Father? Usa? What’s wrong?” Trunks had felt the rippling in his father’s ki that signaled that the crown prince was pissed or upset, and had come running immediately, only to find him holding Usagi so tightly that Trunks thought she would break.

                “There’s been a threat,” Vegeta said shortly. _If she’s this shaken, boy, it’s serious,_ he added with his ki. “Have the house number changed and listed as private.”

                “No,” Usagi said softly, “he won’t call again. He won’t risk me running off; not when he thinks he has me pinned down. If I run again, it’ll be far away, and he knows he’ll have a hell of a time finding me again. I’m very good at disappearing.”

                “I’ll make some calls,” Trunks said shortly, giving his father a nod. “Dad, it would probably be best to give her something and have her rest for a while.”

                Vegeta grunted his agreement and laid Usagi down on the couch after making her drink another tumbler full of whiskey. He absently played with her hair when she sat up though, and snuggled against him, laying her head in his lap. “What’s his name?”

                “Diamond,” she whispered, “and he’s been obsessed with me for a very long time. It won’t be the last we’ll hear from him either, Mr. Briefs.”

                “Good. I’d like to have a word or two with him,” Vegeta growled under his breath.

#######################

Usagi woke in her own bed, fully clothed, and realized that Vegeta must have carried her to her room. “Damn it, I had shit to do,” she whispered in the dark. Her clock read two in the morning, and Usagi let a string of curses fly as she transformed and slipped out her window silently, only to duck into the bushes at the sight of a patrol out on the lawn. “Fuuuuuck.” Now she couldn’t even sneak out anymore without getting caught! She waited patiently for ten minutes, and once the patrol had turned its back, she teleported from where she sat to a building that she knew belonged to the Yakuza.

                She’d planned on tracking down Charlie and making sure he was safe, but since Diamond had made no mention of him, she was sure he was out of town by the time he’d called her. She’d find him later. Right now, she wanted answers on wherever Diamond was staying, and hopefully she’d get in a first strike before he could harm anyone close to her.  

                This would be quick. In and out, she told herself as she entered through the door on the roof and tried to remember the blueprints she’d seen on her computer screen. She stopped on the twentieth floor and peeked into an office area, satisfied that she seemed to have the right floor, and silently crept across the carpet to access one of the computers.

                She jerked around when a hand grabbed her by the elbow, but her kick was blocked, and she found herself thrown to the floor with an elbow to her throat and a hand covering her mouth tightly. “Woman, right now I want to jerk the biggest fucking knot in your ass. You said three nights, not one, and you set off a silent alarm when you broke in.”

                Vegeta watched her eyes flutter shut as she let out a long rush of air, most at likely in relief that it was her mysterious friend and not some night guard. “Come on, woman,” he huffed impatiently, yanking her to her feet and dragging her back to the roof as quickly as he could. “You’re insane or stupid, woman. Didn’t you learn anything from the last time!?”

                “I was just doing recon,” she hissed through her teeth. “How in the hell did you track me down so fast anyway?”

                “Later,” he grunted, scooping her up and taking to the sky. Vegeta brought them down on the rooftop of a bank and regarded her seriously. “To answer you, I could sense your ki from hundreds of miles away, Moon. It’s like a damned silver beacon. Now go home, or pick another target or something. A safer target. The lower level of that building was fucking full of Yakuza.”

                “Good, then it means I had the right one!” She snapped, sitting down on the ledge with a sigh. “I need information from one of their computers; I need to know where their leader’s hiding. Cut the head from the snake and the body will wither and die.”

                Vegeta nodded and sat down when she pulled a computer from her subspace. “This is going to take a while, isn’t it?”

                “Yeah,” she admitted, “it will. If you don’t want to stick around, I’ll understand. I’m going to try and use a program to hack their computers, but I don’t know if it’ll work. This guy knows all my tricks… so I didn’t want to do this from home if it came to hacking.”

                “He’ll be able to track you.”

                “Yes… but he already knows where I live, so I guess it was a stupid idea. Thank you,” she added after a period of silence. “You were right, it was stupid to sneak in there without help.”

                “I have an untraceable cell phone you can call,” Vegeta offered. “You got a pen?” He wrote it down for her once she’d pulled it and a scrap of paper from her subspace, and he jotted it down and handed it back. “Call me the next time you decide to go out, Moon. I was worried when I felt you transform. I thought you were in some serious trouble.”

                Usagi sighed and nodded. “Speaking of worrywarts… I need to call a friend tonight. Thank you for reminding me. He tends to worry as well. Excessively.”

                 “Hn. Should I be jealous?” Vegeta asked, feigning seriousness.

                Sailor Moon couldn’t help but giggle at that and wound up falling back from the crouch she was in to land on her ass, laughing hysterically. “Honestly, I don’t know!” She exclaimed. “That man is so damned confusing that he makes me a little nuts! He knows me in both my personas, but doesn’t know that we’re both the same person, and as both of us, he, well, he…” She turned beet red at that and shook her head when she noticed that her knew friend seemed angry and a little hurt. Ugh, dear Kami, not _another_ one that liked her.

                “He’s such an asshole,” she continued thoughtfully, clearly voicing her mind aloud. “But then he’s capable of these random acts of kindness that leave me totally speechless. I can’t explain it. And I know he’s attracted to me because he’s said as much… and he’s gone a little further than that with both my personas… but I just… I just _can’t_ , you know?” Moon sighed and hung her head.

“I’m so damned afraid of leading him on. I have a feeling that he’s like a piece of hard candy. He’s sour on the outside, and would probably break your damn teeth in if you weren’t careful around him… maybe your neck, too… but if you take your time to get to the inside, he’s sweet and soft.” _Probably tasty as hell, too,_ she added mentally. With another sigh, she looked up to her savior from last night. “You ever get confused about someone like that?”

                “One person, yes,” Vegeta replied gruffly, not sure if he should feel insulted or not by her words, as heartfelt as they were. “She’s… not what she seems on the outside, either,” he replied simply. “She makes me insane half the time, but she’s… something else. I admire her an awful lot.”

                “Him, too,” she sighed wistfully after a long silence. “He’s had it hard in life, I can tell. Some people just wear those scars in their eyes, and he has an awful lot of them. But he keeps on going, even if he alienates everyone around him at the same time. I suppose it’s easier that way… I would know. If you don’t let anyone get too close, there’s less chance of getting hurt.”

                Vegeta blinked and just nodded a little, stunned by how well she’d seen right through him despite only a few weeks of interaction. Was he that damned easy to read!? “I think I _am_ a little jealous,” he finally muttered, at a loss for what else to say that wouldn’t give him away.

                “Eh, don’t be. He’s my boss, and anything between us would be unprofessional. I just can’t do that.”

                “You can’t keep it professional from the waist up?” Vegeta snickered.

                “Definitely not,” she replied dryly. “There are some days when I just want to beat that smirk right off his face, and others where I want to kiss it. Insufferable prick,” she huffed in frustration.

                “Sounds like my kind of guy.”

                “Good, _you_ go sleep with him. Then maybe he’ll give _me_ a break,” she chuckled. “Hey, so what do I call you, anyway?”

                “Names aren’t important,” Vegeta grunted for the second time in two meetings.

                “They’re calling you ‘The Ghost’ in the papers; apparently a few of our Triad friends got away during your hellacious beat down. They said that you were invisible, like some sort of vengeful spirit.” Usagi grinned when she could sense him smiling behind the bandana. “Like that, huh? Does it play to your little ego?”

                “Little? Shit, woman. I’ll have you know that there is **_nothing_** little about me, **especially** my ego,” he retorted with a waggle of his eyebrows.

                “Maybe I’ll ask you to prove it one day,” she replied tartly, giving him a wink. “Well, Casper, let’s get a move-on. I’ll just do this from home. Seems kind of stupid to waste good moonlight by sitting on my ass.”

                “Casper?”

                Usagi grinned back at him as she stood and put her computer away. “The friendly ghost.” She only grinned wider when he sputtered and flung a few random curses her way. “Better come up with something else for me to call you before it sticks… Casper.”

                “Uh—you—why—I—quit teasing me, woman! I’m not a **_friendly ghost_**! I’m **_far_** from friendly! I’m fucking **_scary_** , damn it! A _scary_ ghost! A poltergeist of pain and punishment!”

                “And alliteration?”

                “And—what—I… I seriously feel like smacking you silly right now, Moon,” Vegeta growled, shaking his fist in her direction when she laughed hysterically at his reaction. “And don’t fucking call me that, damn it. I’m _scary_ ,” he added, lifting his chin a little like a petulant child.

                “Yes, Casper… you’re **_very_** scary,” Moon replied in her best patronizing tone with a pat to his shoulder. “And if you want to prove just how scary you can be, we can go haunt some Yakuza.”

                “Good. Because you’ve gotten me in the mood to kill something, woman,” Vegeta said flatly, cracking his knuckles in annoyance.


	8. Chapter 8

Usagi had a harder time sneaking back in than she had sneaking out, and finally had to risk teleporting into her bathroom when it was clear that she wasn’t getting in no matter how long she waited. Whomever these blonde guys were that Trunks had hired, they had the place on fucking lockdown. Huh… and was that one guy… green? “Fuck me running, I need some sleep,” she whispered, looking out her window.

                She had considered giving Vegeta his present when she got home, but since it was already nearly dawn, she’d wait until that night. The least she could do was to let him get his full enjoyment out of his one-night stand with a world famous super heroine.

                Usagi started getting ready for bed and nearly shit a frisbee when her door flung wide open and Vegeta snarled at her, slamming the door behind him and shoving her down onto the bed. “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?” He roared.

                “I—what—I was just getting ready for bed—what did I do!?”

                “YOU SNUCK OUT! AND DON’T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!” Vegeta yelled, shoving her back down the moment she tried to sit up. “Stay put,” he snapped, pulling a walkie-talkie from the back of his jeans. “She’s here and in her room,” he barked into it.

                “I’ll let you deal with her,” Trunks growled from the other end. “Right now I feel like breaking her fucking neck, Father.”

                “You’re not the only one,” he huffed before shoving the piece of equipment back in his pocket. “Now,” he said quietly, “you’re going to tell me what in the hell possessed you to leave this compound after everything that’s happened. And I’m going to _try_ not to scream my head off until you’re deaf.” Vegeta sat down on the side of the bed and reined in the rage he’d felt the moment he’d sensed her transform and disappear, only to reappear in the city. And he couldn’t really give it away as The Ghost, or she’d suspect it was him.

                But now that he had her on the spot, he was growling at himself in frustration at the sight of her trembling, clutching her folded nightgown to her bare chest, her hair half undone and spread out around her. “Where in the hell did you go?” Vegeta asked calmly, amazed at his own ability not to keep yelling.

                “I—went to—to—ch—check on a fr—friend,” she whispered tearfully, trying her best not to cry as he glared down at her.

                “The American? Charlie?” Vegeta asked knowingly. Her words had a ring of truth to them; maybe that’s all she’d intended to do in the first place when she’d gone out by herself, and she’d gotten some bright idea to take on the Yakuza alone.

                Usagi nodded slightly, the action shaking a tear loose to drip down to the sheets, and she scrambled away from him when he leaned towards her.

                Vegeta sighed and shook his head. “Your damned bleeding heart’s going to get you killed one of these days, woman. Next time you want to leave, take an escort. Hell, _I’ll_ even go with you. But don’t go out _alone_. I nearly had heart failure when I knocked and you weren’t here. And that was two _hours_ ago.” He relented when she just continued to stare at him with those captivatingly wide eyes, and he slid over to her to rest his forehead on her shoulder. “I was worried sick, woman.”

                “I’m sorry,” she replied, her voice so soft that he barely heard her. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

                “Damn it, woman,” he sighed, pulling her face to his for a kiss. His lips were slow and gentle as they explored her mouth, and he felt her trembling ease as her arms gradually slipped around him and her fingers ran through his hair. Good, she was no longer denying that she enjoyed his kisses and was aroused by them. That was a step, at least… but unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on how she saw it—for her, his beast wanted more than just a taste.

“Want you,” he moaned between kisses, his hands throwing her clean nightgown to the floor before they began to move lightly over her breasts, teasing the nipples with his calloused palms, making her whimper for more as he slipped his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers.

                Usagi couldn’t fight the attraction between them any longer, but just as she moved her leg to hook it around his and lift her hips in invitation, Trunks’s voice filled the room. “Father, there’s a car at the gate, and they have a delivery for Usagi. It’s not scheduled.”

                She blushed as they froze and broke away, grabbing the blanket on her bed to cover herself as she panted for air. Dear Kami, what the fuck was _wrong_ with her!? Yes, she liked him, but he was the **boss**! If she wanted to do this, she needed to rein in her damned hormones and wait until she was Sailor Moon, _not_ Usagi!

                “Did you order anything?” Vegeta asked seriously, clearly not embarrassed at all by what they’d nearly just done. If anything, he was so focused on looking out her window that it was as if their make-out session had been of no consequence for him.

                “No,” she finally managed.

                “What is it, Trunks?” Vegeta rumbled into the walkie.

                “Flowers,” came his reply, and the prince whipped his head around to give her a questioning look.

                Usagi swallowed and began to tremble; Diamond couldn’t get to her, it was true, but he’d obviously thought of other ways to intimidate her. And it had already begun. “It has to be him.”

                “Read the card, boy,” Vegeta ordered.

                “It says, ‘looking forward to our reunion.’ Father, there’s a second note here in a sealed envelope.”

                “Refuse the flowers; bring the note,” Vegeta ordered gruffly as he stooped and picked up her nightgown and handed it over with a smirk. “We’ll have to finish this later?” He asked hopefully, once the walkie was safely tucked away. Kami, if he wasn’t so damned concerned about the delivery, he would already be taking her right there on the bed. Add yet one more reason to want to strangle Diamond, he’d effectively cock blocked the Saiyan prince without even doing it on purpose.

                “No, Mr. Briefs,” Usagi said, quickly donning her nightgown as fast as she could. “I—I shouldn’t have let that—“

                “Nothing even happened, woman. Yet again. Kami, if you’re going to be this damned shy about some making out, you’re going to die of embarrassment when I finally have you,” Vegeta snorted. As expected, she blushed so brightly that she practically glowed, and Vegeta snickered at the sight. “You have sex hair, by the way.”

                Usagi eeped and quickly turned to the mirror to finger comb the tangles before shooting him a dirty look. “Asshole.” She pushed past him and made her way downstairs to meet Trunks in the kitchen, where he was scowling at her and obviously fighting the urge to scream at her for an hour. “What kind of flowers were they?” She asked softly.

                “Forget-me-nots.”

                Usagi snorted and shook her head at that. “A meaning within a meaning. Eternal love my ass.” She opened the envelope when he handed it to her and found a flowery, almost feminine script.

                _My dearest love,_

_Watching you tonight brought back so many memories. I hope to see you again soon._

_Forever yours,_

_Diamond_

He’d… he’d _seen_ her? With trembling hands she unfolded a print-out photo of herself kneeling on the rooftop of the Yakuza’s building dressed as Sailor Moon, and she snatched up a lighter from the kitchen table, shoved past Trunks, and set fire to both sheets in the yard before anyone could stop her.

                She felt Trunks hugging her from behind as she knelt on the lawn, watching the papers turn to ash, and leaned back into the comforting embrace. “Creepy fucking asshole,” she whispered.

                “What did it say?”

                “He saw me tonight. In the city. And he sent me a picture,” she replied fearfully.

                “Fucking creep,” Trunks snarled. “Come on, Usa. You need some sleep. And while I’m sure Father already ripped you a new one, I’ll tell you this: if you sneak out again for any reason—I don’t care if the house is burning the fuck down, either—I will personally hogtie you to the couch while I smash your computer before your very eyes.”

                “I’ll never make you chocolate chip pancakes again, Trunks,” Usagi threatened. “Or spring rolls, or my homemade biscuits, or my meatloaf. Any other favorite foods I’ve missed?”

                “I stand by my statement, Usa-momma. Don’t you _dare_ scare me like that again.” Trunks led her back inside before she could get a good look at the guards and recognize them as the Sons, who were all in Super Saiyan form just in case. “Father, you stay with her,” he ordered firmly; he wasn’t an idiot, he’d smelled his father’s scent all over Usagi and it was far too strong to be mistaken for anything but some intimate contact. Vegeta would keep the woman that had raised Trunks safe, and he’d do it with his life.

                Even if Vegeta had wanted to argue, he wouldn’t have. That savage light was in Trunks’s eyes, and he was clearly raging on the inside, barely keeping his beast in check. _Rein it in, boy._ “I’ll stay with her,” he added aloud. “Come on, woman. I’ve been up all night. We can both get some rest.”

                Usagi sighed and nodded; her bed was big enough that she could keep to her side and he to his, and she was frankly too emotionally and physically exhausted to argue. But when he escorted her past her own door and opened his, she froze and shook her head. Something told her that sleeping in there would be a bad idea. Sleeping in her room was one thing; it was her territory… but sleeping in _his_ territory…

                She didn’t know he was Saiyan, didn’t know that sleeping in his bed with him was an act of him laying some sort of claim to her, but on an instinctual level she somehow knew it.

                “Come on, woman. I’m tired,” Vegeta grunted.

                “I’d rather sleep in my room,” Usagi answered a little timidly, backing away.

                Vegeta wasn’t taking no for an answer and simply snagged her arm and pulled her along with him, shutting his door behind them. “Just sleep,” he rumbled. “You have my word, woman.”

                Usagi relaxed a little at that and sighed as she drew back the covers on the huge bed and slipped into it, facing the wall. She jumped a little when she felt him slide in as well and scoot over to her to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her tightly to his chest, burying his face in her unbound hair. “Vegeta… are you… naked?”

                “Told you once before that I don’t have sleeping clothes,” he chuckled. “Why? Would you like to match? I’d definitely appreciate it if you did… in more ways than one.”

                Usagi could practically hear the little smirk in his voice, and sputtered silently as she felt him twitch against the thigh-high hem of her nightgown. “I’d better not wake up with something poking me in the ass,” she growled.

                “Oh no, woman. I’ll be aiming for the other side,” he laughed. “What?” He asked when she stiffened in his arms, “don’t pretend you don’t want it, Usa.”

                “You’re my _boss_ , Mr. Briefs,” she sighed.

                “Yet you’re sharing my bed,” he pointed out smugly. “And I swear, if you mention it again, I’m going to fire you just on principle. At least then you’d have to find some new excuse to refuse me.”

                “Right now I wouldn’t have a hard time thinking of a few. You’re being a dick, for one. Now goodnight, Mr. Briefs.”

                “Night, woman,” Vegeta chuckled, snuggling closer to his prize.

######################

                Usagi wasn’t surprised to wake up to a gentle assault on her senses, but she was surprised when Vegeta stopped and looked down at her. “Good, you’re awake. I thought I was going to have to get to third base before you’d wake up.”

                Vegeta grinned at her lazily when she turned bright red, and gave her one more slow, toe-curling kiss before retreating and walking to his dresser naked to locate some clothing. “You don’t have to look away,” he said knowingly without even glancing over to see that she was, in fact, covering her eyes. “If anything, you should be enjoying the view, woman.”

                “Hentai,” Usagi snorted. “Thank you, though,” she added after a moment. “For not trying to seduce the daylights out of me.”

                “Can’t say I wasn’t tempted,” Vegeta admitted, “but I said ‘just sleeping,’ and I wasn’t going to break a promise.” In fact, his beast had been roaring at him since he’d opened his eyes, demanding that he claim the woman lying next to him, but Vegeta had somehow won that internal battle. If only she _knew_ what she was putting him through!

                “I’m going to get some clothes on,” Usagi yawned, sliding out of the bed to slip into her own room and close her door behind her. The moment she was dressed, she pulled her untraceable phone from her subspace and dialed her friend, but it went straight to voicemail. “Hey, Cas, I know you’re probably still asleep, but I needed to let you know that it’s going to awhile before I can sneak out again. If you can come up with some sort of gameplan that doesn’t involve me getting caught, give me a call and let me know. Thanks.”

                While she was brushing her teeth and her hair, Vegeta was listening to the message in his own room and letting out a long sigh. “Damn it,” he sputtered. He’d have to talk to Trunks and convince him that Vegeta would follow her the next time. But his son would likely freak the fuck out and scream his head off at him, which would likely result in a fight that the younger Saiyan couldn’t win. Vegeta didn’t have a problem with Usagi going out as Sailor Moon—since he’d be with her—but he did have a problem with her leaving without any notice. Well, at least they’d exchanged superhero hotlines.

                He found Usagi downstairs, pouring coffee, and couldn’t stop himself from kissing her forehead when she handed him a cup, despite the fact that his son was watching the two of them with interest. _What?_ Vegeta asked with his ki.

                _I thought she would have come down here, marked and reeking of you,_ Trunks answered, hiding a smile in his mug.

                _Unlike you, boy, I know how to keep my cock in my pants and take my time. Mind your business._ “So. Plans for today,” Vegeta said out loud, taking his customary seat at the table while Usagi fixed them all a quick brunch.

                “Paperwork’s already been done for the day,” Trunks replied smoothly, “and I already went to the meetings scheduled for today. Omura-san seemed genuinely disappointed not to see you, Usagi. He gave me this to give to you.” Trunks slid an envelope across the table and wondered why Usagi looked so sad. “Usa-momma?” He teased.

                Usagi only blushed even brighter when Vegeta gave her a questioning look. “I’ve told him since he was twelve not to call me that, but the little smart-ass never learned,” she explained as she took the envelope and shoved it in her pocket. She felt a second envelope in there from the day before and grimaced before pulling it out.

                It was the note from Diamond that Charlie had given her, and she’d been too shaken at the time to read it. “Ugh. I’ll be right back. Give me a lighter while we’re at it,” she added, snagging one from next to the ashtray to light a cigarette and retreat to the day room.

                As soon as she was sure they weren’t going to follow her, Usagi opened the envelope and sat down hard as three photos fell out of a folded piece of paper. “Rei-chan,” she whispered, looking at the first one. It showed the miko working in the temple, cleaning the altar, a look of intense concentration on her face.

                The second showed Makoto smiling brightly as she served customers at the counter of her bakery. “Mako-chan.”

                And the third showed a long-haired Ami sitting outside the hospital on a bench, wearing her white coat and stethoscope, while she looked out at the snow. “Ami-chan.”

                Well, that answered which three Senshi Diamond had located. Usagi had almost hoped that two of them had been Haruka and Michiru; those two could definitely take care of themselves, memories or no memories. She read the note, but since it had been sent before her little talk with Diamond over the phone, she disregarded the threats laced throughout the perverted innuendo and finally burned the letter in an ashtray. She’d keep the photos; they didn’t give anything away about Sailor Moon, and it was nice to have pictures of her friends to look at.

                Usagi tucked them away in her subspace before returning to the kitchen and opening the letter from Omura, and wasn’t surprised to have a key fall onto the table.

                _Usagi-san,_

_I won’t take no for an answer. I’ve had the house cleaned and prepared for two, and this is the key to the front and back doors. You need to take a vacation before you work yourself to death; trust me, an old man like me knows these things. Enjoy, dear._

_Omura Ken_

                The address and the security code were written neatly at the bottom of the paper, and Usagi finally chuckled and stuck both it and the key in her pocket. “He sure is persistent.”

                “What did it say?” Vegeta asked suspiciously.

                Usagi blushed, knowing what he was thinking, and shook her head vigorously. “Oh, no. Not that. Omura-san’s been trying to convince me for weeks to take a vacation, and he offered me his beachhouse. The note said that it’s all been taken care of.”

                “That’s not a bad idea, Usa,” Trunks rumbled into his fork. “You could get out of here and that asshole wouldn’t be able to find you for a while.”

                “No, it’s not as secure as Capsule Corp,” Vegeta said flatly.

                “He’s right, it’s not,” Usagi agreed. “Maybe after all this mess is over.”

                Before Trunks could argue further, the backdoor swung open, and a tall green man gave them all a nod. “Another unscheduled delivery, Trunks.”

                “Huh, and I thought I was seeing things. You _are_ green,” Usagi said in wonder.

                “Thank you, Captain Obvious,” the green man rumbled.

                Both Saiyans snickered, but Usagi rolled her eyes and stood. “Sorry, I thought I really was seeing things out my window last night. I’m Usagi,” she said with a little bow.

                “Piccolo,” he replied. “Trunks, did you want to come and look at this?”

                “I’ve got it,” Usagi said quickly, snagging her jacket from the back of a chair and slinging it around her shoulders. “You boys stay and eat, you’ve done more than enough. You too, if you’re hungry, Piccolo.”

                “Not hungry, but thank you,” he answered flatly, as he escorted her outside. “Trunks has been closed-lipped about all of this,” he added as they walked across the lawn. “Mind filling me in?”

                “Oh.” Usagi blushed and shook her head. “Just some pervert that’s been after me for a very long time. I thought he was dead, but…” She shrugged in embarrassment. “Guess I didn’t kill him right the first time.”

                “Huh… you killed him?” Piccolo asked in surprise. This tiny blonde certainly didn’t look like a killer to him… but then again, Trunks didn’t, either.

                “Obviously I didn’t succeed,” she muttered dryly, stepping up to the car at the gate. “What’s the delivery?”

                The man at the window smirked at her, and Usagi knew without a doubt that he was Yakuza. Of course, Diamond would send his own men to deliver his stupid little gifts. “For you, Majesty,” he chuckled, producing a large, long box.

                Usagi opened it gingerly, but slammed it closed the moment she saw the gem-encrusted scepter inside, a perfect replica of her own as Neo Queen Serenity. “Tell your employer that anymore gifts he sends will be rejected without even being opened, and that he’s simply wasting both our times. And I’m sure his is as just as valuable as mine. Please don’t come back again, or there will be consequences.”

                “As you wish, Majesty.”

                “And don’t call me that,” she hissed at him before turning and stomping a few feet away to fume in private.

                “Majesty,” Piccolo rumbled softly from behind her. He’d gotten a good look in that box before Usagi had slammed it shut. “An awful lot of things suddenly make sense, Usagi. Or should I say… Serenity? Or is it Cosmos, now?” He caught her when she paled and trembled so hard that she couldn’t stand, and he shook his head slightly. “I won’t tell anyone,” he promised. “My kind… we know all about the Queen of the Stars and the Light of Hope. I’m Namekian,” he explained, “and we know a lot of different things about the universe.”

                She shook off her nerves as a thought occurred to her. “Huh… you wouldn’t happen to be Casper, would you? The Ghost?”

                Piccolo shrugged and shook his head. “No, but I’ve seen the reports and I’ve wondered as well. This person that’s sending all these things…? An old enemy?”

                “A very old enemy,” she confirmed with a sigh. “He was obsessed with me in the future, but couldn’t have me, so he came back in time to when I was about sixteen and, well…” She shrugged. “In the end I kicked his ass. I was sure he was dead, too. His brother as well… but Diamond said something about Sapphire being alive. Makes me wonder about Rubeus and Esmeraude as well… and the Death Phantom. He’s a form of Chaos,” she added softly.

                “Then we’d better be on our guard,” Piccolo said seriously.

                “No… I sealed Chaos. There’s no _possible_ way that he could break out,” Usagi thought aloud. “I need to find some way to contact Sapphire without tipping off his brother.” She waved her hand when Piccolo tensed and growled. “No, Sapphire came over to our side before he died, and he was always the reasonable one in their twisted little family. If anyone can talk some sense into Diamond to just go away and leave me alone, Sapphire’s my best bet.”

                Usagi then looked up at him and grinned mischievously. “Well, I know now who my escort into the city’s going to be at night,” she purred. “Oh come on, you’re a Warrior-class Namekian, right? You’re always itching to get into a fight, aren’t you?”

                “Dragon clan as well,” Piccolo grumbled, unsurprised to learn that she actually knew what a Namekian was. She’d probably never seen one before, but as Cosmos, she would likely know a little something about the other races inhabiting the galaxy. “And yes, I’ll help you,” he sighed. Better to offer his services to the Queen of the Stars than wind up getting drafted.

                “Good! I have plans for tonight that involve staying here, but tomorrow night’s a different story. I’ll call Cas at some point and see if he’s up for wreaking some bloody havoc. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to have some help, even though it’ll mean a little less fun for him. He seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit last night,” she added with a snort.

                “Joy,” Piccolo snorted as he followed her back inside and shook his head at the two Saiyans waiting for him to speak. “Jewelry,” he said lightly, pouring himself a glass of water.

                “Piccolo has agreed to be my escort into the city whenever I decide to go out at night,” Usagi added, and cringed at the glare that Trunks shot her across the table. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me what’s on your mind, kiddo, so just get it over with.”

                “You can trust him, a _total stranger_ to you, with your secret, but you can’t trust _me_!?” Trunks snapped, unable to hide the hurt in his eyes.

                “I already knew her secret, Trunks,” Piccolo rumbled. “And I won’t give it away, either,” he added quickly. “I already promised her my silence.”

                “She’ll tell us when she’s ready, boy. Won’t you Usagi?” Vegeta asked calmly.

                Surprised at Vegeta’s support, Usagi simply nodded. “Soon… I just… it’s not easy giving up over a decade of keeping secrets. I mean no offense Trunks, I’m sorry. I do trust you and your father, but… can you just wait a little while?”

                “Fine,” the younger Saiyan sighed. “And I’m sorry for snapping at you. Why don’t you eat, and then we’ll go over some plans for security for the party.”

                “Sounds like a plan,” Usagi said with a gentle smile, giving his hand an affectionate squeeze.

                “And then I’m going to teach you some self-defense,” Vegeta added. “Or add to it, at least.”

                Usagi laughed at that and shook her head. “I don’t think there’s much you can teach me, Mr. Briefs.” She relented when his eyes hardened and he just stared at her, waiting for her to just give in and shut up. “Fine,” she groaned. “But don’t get mad at me when I kick your ass.”

                “That, I’ll have to see,” Piccolo mumbled around his glass of water.

                #######################

                Vegeta led Usagi outside into the yard the moment she was dressed in something more appropriate for fighting, and signaled everyone with his ki that there would be no ki involved in any sparring in front of her. The prince was ready to tell her their secret, but he’d decided to wait until she revealed her own. When she felt she could trust them, they’d do the same.

                “How much do you know?” Vegeta grunted, trying not to grin and laugh at himself. He knew damned well what she could do, but getting to her flaws would take a little while without giving himself away completely.

                “Tell you what,” Usagi began, popping her glove-clad knuckles, “why don’t we just spar, and then we can go from there?”

                “Sure about that, woman?” Vegeta asked, rolling his neck to pop it while he studied the grinning faces of the Sons on the fence-line. _Not a word,_ he warned with his ki.

                “Yup. Bring it, boss man.” Usagi barely dodged in time when Vegeta flew at her without warning, but managed to counter with a backhanded fist that he expertly blocked and countered as well with a kick. Usagi had no trouble blocking, but she found herself trying not to shake her numb hands after only two minutes of trading punches with Vegeta. _Kami, he hits like a fucking hammer!_

                “You’re holding back, woman,” Vegeta said, signaling for a pause in the spar.

                “So are you, old man. I’ve been shot, you know. I can take a fucking punch,” she snapped, a little angry with him for babying her.

                “Who are you calling old, woman?” Vegeta snorted, once again taking a fighting stance and wishing he could use a little ki to rub her face in the dirt.

                “Well, you’re only about twenty years my senior, Mr. Briefs. Maybe I should call you Daddy.”

                “I’ll show you who your daddy is,” he snickered as they both began to circle each other. “In fact,” he added softly, knowing that Usagi and probably only the Namek could hear him, “if I land a hit, you let me show you just how old and experienced I am.”

                “You couldn’t keep up with me, grandpa,” Usagi retorted, too into the fight to be embarrassed.

                “I may not be Trunks’s age, woman, but I fuck like a spring chicken. I land a hit, and you let me prove it,” Vegeta replied with a smirk.

                “Not a chance, boss man,” Usagi replied, going in low for a hit just to test his speed, followed by a quick flip to dance back out of his reach. “I have to admit, though, you’re pretty fast for a decrepit old fart.”

                “And you don’t hit like a girl,” Vegeta allowed, chuckling as he easily dodged and blocked her sudden little flurry of punches. “So, a wager? Or are you too much of a pussy?” He asked when they were circling once more.

                “What would you propose?” Usagi asked carefully. That insufferable smirk was the only answer she needed, and she rolled her eyes in response. “Not that.”

                “Hm… third base,” he said quietly, still trying to keep this conversation private.

                “Second,” Usagi countered, “and if I land the first hit, you get to cook supper for me. And _real_ food, too. Not one of those microwavable things.”

                Vegeta grimaced at that but nodded after a moment. In exchange for a shot at second base, he’d be willing to agree to cooking. “You’d better wear one of those lacy bras I saw, woman. Those perfect tits are mine,” he snickered under his breath.

                “And you’d better make sure to cook a lot of food. It takes an awful lot to satisfy my appetite,” Usagi countered.

                “Oh, I’ve got _plenty_ to satisfy you, woman… but you don’t want to go that far. Now… don’t hold back. I won’t.”

                The Sons all gaped when Usagi suddenly darted back into Vegeta’s range and began to fight so determinedly that they all wondered just where in the hell she’d trained and if she was even human. Piccolo was the only one that knew better, and he smirked quietly to himself while he wondered who would win their little bet. He’d heard every word, of course, and was secretly amazed at Vegeta’s ability to keep his darker nature from taking over, resulting in him claiming the little blonde. Apparently the prince had a lot more self-control than he’d let on in the past.

                And then it happened. Vegeta’s fist flew out as he spotted an opening, but at the very same moment Usagi’s leg arched in a kick, and both of them went flying back, clutching their faces in surprise. “A draw!?” Goku said in wonder.

                “Who are you kidding, Dad!? I’m amazed the fight wasn’t over ten seconds into it!” Goten exclaimed. “She’s really something!”

                “Who hit first!?” Usagi yelled over to the spectators.

                “It was at the same time,” Piccolo answered.

                “Rematch,” Vegeta snarled, climbing to his feet. “I’m winning this bet, damn it.”

                Usagi held up a hand for him to wait a second and rubbed at the bruise on her jaw. “No, we both win. That was always the deal when I sparred with my girlfriends.”

                Vegeta’s eyebrows hit his hairline and he grinned as he nodded. “Any requests for supper?” He asked as he helped her to her feet and slung an arm around her sweaty shoulders.

                “Whatever you can make that won’t kill me,” she laughed, totally oblivious to the way the Saiyans at the fence were watching the pair like they’d grown a couple extra heads.

                “Keep your mouths shut,” Trunks advised them out the side of his mouth, “and you might actually see him kiss her.”

                Goten just gaped and nodded. “Your dad’s got a thing for Usa-momma? Damn… and who would have thought she could take him in an evenly matched fight?”

                “Usa has a lot of secrets,” Trunks hedged, smiling at the sight of his father bending his head a little to peck her on the mouth before they went inside. “Goku… you ok?” He asked in concern. The tallest of the Saiyan brood was frowning down at the grass, his eyebrows knitting together in concentration.

                “Fine,” he mumbled. A whole lot of things suddenly made sense to him; Vegeta’s protectiveness of both Sailor Moon and Usagi, and the way he was staking his claim over his assistant as a mate. And the implied feelings that he had for the heroine… they were one and the same! There was no way a Saiyan male could be drawn to two women at the same time, so it was the only answer that made sense! Oh, Kami… did Usagi knew that Vegeta knew who she was!? No… she couldn’t, or Vegeta would have divulged his own secrets, both as The Ghost and as a Saiyan prince. “I would kill to be a fly on the wall for that confrontation,” he whispered to himself.

                “So would I,” Piccolo mumbled. “Call me when it finally goes down,” he chuckled.

                “You know too?” Goku asked in surprise. “She actually told you?”

                “I saw the latest gift that her enemy sent her, and the symbols on it were identical to something my people know an awful lot about. I promised I wouldn’t tell, though. Now… I’m going to the kitchen. Seeing the Prince of all Saiyans cook for a woman is a once in a lifetime thing.”

                “Indeed,” Goku laughed.


	9. Chapter 9

Usagi jumped a little when she felt her secret, second phone vibrate in her front pocket, and she quickly excused herself from the conversation she was having with the Sons and the Namek to run inside and answer it. But there were maids in the kitchen, bustling around and discussing the fact that Mr. Briefs was going to cook that evening; it apparently amused them as much as it did her, she noted dryly.

 The phone kept going off as she searched for somewhere private to answer it, and she grunted as she opened the door to the study and found Vegeta on his own phone, eyebrows knit tightly together as he glared at her. “Sorry, didn’t know this room was taken.” Usagi exited and closed the door behind her, oblivious to the naked look of relief on his face when she left and the way he practically sagged against the wall next to her desk.

Her room, then. “Casper?” She asked hurriedly the moment her door was closed.

“I didn’t think you would answer.”

“Sorry, it’s kind of hard to find somewhere secure to answer when there’s so many people over… and my boss using my damned study like he owns the place,” she added with a snort. “Even though he does own the place, but it’s still mine.”

Casper sounded mildly amused, and Usagi shook her head to herself. “When did you want to meet?” He asked.

“Not tonight. My boss is cooking tonight. Tomorrow? If I’m not in the hospital having my stomach pumped, that is,” she snickered.

“Not all men are abysmal in the kitchen, woman.”

Usagi tittered at that. He sounded almost insulted on Mr. Briefs’s behalf; no matter where in the world or if they’d even met, men would always side with their own gender! “Oh, can you cook, then?” She teased. “Because I recall eating takeout on a rooftop the other night, my sexy poltergeist of pain and domesticity.” She bit down on her lower lip when she realized she’d called him sexy. Damn it all to hell, she had decided that she wasn’t going to voice her growing attraction to him; she was _not_ going through all the shit that she’d been through with Mamoru, _not again_.

“You wouldn’t survive my cooking,” Vegeta snorted on the other end. It was a lie, he was already preparing a meal in his head, something he’d seen made on TV and had seemed simple enough, if not time-consuming. “So, tomorrow night, then?” He also hadn’t missed her easy compliment and swelled a little with male Saiyan pride. So, she found him sexy, then? Maybe he’d have to use that to his advantage tomorrow night; he’d been dying to rip off the lower part of that fuku and feel those long legs wrapped around his waist as he—no, damn it! Bad timing for bad thoughts!

Vegeta willed his arousal to deflate, closing his eyes and concentrating on thinking of anything but those gorgeous pink lips parted as she moaned his name in ecstasy and—damn it, not again! “Yup,” Usagi replied smoothly, picking up the subtle purr in his voice; she knew that he’d heard the compliment and had been pleased by it. Great. Just fucking great. As if having her extremely sexy  employer breathing down he neck and trying to seduce her wasn’t enough already. “Do we need to pick a spot, or can you just locate me by my ki like before?”

“Woman, I could find you anywhere,” he chortled. “Do we have a gameplan for tonight, or are we going in screaming our heads off and just throwing ourselves at the enemy?”

“Oh, I have a bit of a plan in mind, but it involves going back to that same building from last night. You up for that?”

“Woman, I’m up for _anything,_ ” he purred, hoping like hell that she caught the double entendre.

Slightly blushing at the blatant suggestiveness in his low voice, Usagi licked her lips at the thought of after-battle sex with the anonymous stranger that had saved her life several times. The idea was certainly more than a little arousing. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said carefully, spacing out her words. “See you tomorrow.”

####################

“Father burned dessert, so I had it ordered,” Trunks informed her from her doorway. “Nothing I haven’t seen before, Usa-momma,” he chuckled when she yelped and covered up.

“When you were attached to my hip as a child, yes! But you’re a grown man now, Trunks! Geez!” Usagi snapped, quickly pulling a shirt on over the sexy white lace bra she was wearing.

Trunks just laughed and shook his head. “Not like you’re naked, Usa. So… I’m curious. What was the other part of the bet? Should I start calling you ‘mommy’ for real?”

Usagi blushed and sputtered, throwing her hands in the air. “No, it wasn’t that! Kami, your mind goes to the gutter just like your father’s! Besides,” she added primly, “it’s not proper for you to be discussing that sort of stuff about your dad. Or me.”

“Like you said, Usa. I’m grown. And I’d like to see Father happy… and you seem to make him happy. By the way, you should wear something a little less casual,” he added with his father’s smirk. “Father’s kind of gone all-out on this thing.”

Usagi blinked and just stared at him as her cheeks reddened. She’d expected a hastily thrown together dinner, maybe something simple like spaghetti with sauce from the can. “What did he make?” She asked slowly.

“You’ll see.” Trunks opened her closet and handed her a halter-top style little black dress and a pair of heels. “That’s perfect. Here, put these on and head downstairs. Father’s changing clothes, too, since he kind of got a little messy in the kitchen.”

“Dear gods, I can only imagine,” Usagi muttered, shoving him out of her room before stripping down and changing into a strapless black lace bra and matching panties. She donned the dress, some thigh highs and the heels, accented it all with her pearls, and decided in the end to leave her hair cascading to the floor. If Vegeta had truly gone to so much trouble, the least she could give him was some eye candy.

She wasn’t sure what she expected when she descended the stairs, but she certainly didn’t expect to find the day room and the kitchen lit only by candles, and Vegeta waiting for her, leaning against the wall in a white dress shirt and black slacks. And as simple as his clothing was, it accentuated every muscle of his chest and made him look good enough to eat as an appetizer. “Wow.”

Vegeta couldn’t help but lick his lips and nod. “Same.”

Usagi stood there a little awkwardly, her arms folded under her chest while she looked around and blushed at the huge effort. “You didn’t have to do all this, Mr. Briefs.”

“Woman, I don’t do anything half-assed. You’d better learn that quickly. And I swear by all that is _holy_ , if you call me ‘Mr. Briefs’ one more time tonight, I’ll take you out back and beat your ass.”

“Hm… kinky,” she countered.

“You have no clue just how kinky I can get, woman,” Vegeta countered smoothly before ushering her into the kitchen.

“Holy shit,” Usagi breathed, taking in the spread set out on the table. “That answers my question.”

“And what was that, woman? Whether or not you’d be requiring a charcoal treatment in an hour?”

“No,” Usagi replied absently, letting him guide her to a chair that he pulled out for her before she sat. “Whether or not you were going to hold me to the other end of this bet.”

“Those perfect, luscious tits will be in my mouth before dawn, Usa,” Vegeta replied seriously as he fixed a plate for her and set it in front of her, smirking at the sight of her blush in the candlelight.

Her eyes wide at his bold words, Usagi could only nod and wait politely for him to serve himself and take a seat before she took a tentative sip from the glass of wine he’d poured for her. She found him staring at her expectantly when she set her glass down, and realized that she was being incredibly rude when he gestured at her plate, indicating that he wanted her to try it and voice her approval.

Usagi studied the dish for a moment; it was some sort of pasta in cream sauce with steak and shrimp thrown in, and she wondered if he knew that this was one of her favorites.

Vegeta smiled broadly when she put a small bite in her mouth and visibly melted before his eyes, voicing her pleasure with a little happy chortle. Well, that answered his question, too. He dug in then, pleasantly surprised at his own handiwork as well, and the two of them ate in relative silence, the only sounds coming from them an occasional sigh or mumble of approval over the food.

Finally, Usagi leaned back and relaxed. “Ok, you _have_ to tell me this much, boss man. Where in the hell did you learn to cook like that, and why in the fuck don’t you do it more often?”

“Cooking channel,” Vegeta answered simply as he started in on his fourth plate, taking note that Usagi had polished off a little over three. “What?” He asked when she giggled. “I like food!” Hell, Vegeta had caught Kakarot watching the same channel on more than one occasion, and the prince had remarked that it was practically the Saiyan equivalent of porn.

“No, it’s fine, Vegeta!” She laughed. “It’s just that domestic housewives usually watch that stuff, not world-famous manly fighters like you!” Usagi drank some wine while she wiped at tears of amusement, and finally smiled across the table at him. “So, why don’t you do this more often?”

“First time I tried it,” he grunted once he’d swallowed a mouthful of pasta. “Other than cooking outdoors, that sort of thing. I already knew how to cook the steak and the shrimp from going on trips into the wilderness, so the only thing I was unsure of was the noodles. And I never did it before because no one ever asked me to,” he admitted. “Mrs. Briefs couldn’t cook to save her life, as you know. She let the maids do it.”

Usagi made a face and nodded; she’d been victim to Bulma’s cooking on a couple of occasions, and she and Trunks still laughed about it on occasion. But Vegeta… “You really miss her, don’t you?” She asked softly.

Vegeta froze in mid-chew for a moment, then swallowed and took a drink of wine. “I’ve finished mourning her, if that’s what you’re asking, Usagi. It’s been ten years, after all.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she assured him. “It’s just… Mamoru’s still alive, and sometimes I miss him, you know?”

“Who?” Vegeta set down his fork and gave her his full attention, fixing those startlingly intelligent eyes on her face.

“Um… you know. My only boyfriend. Ever. We got together when I was fourteen, but we broke up four years later, just after I took this job.” Usagi gaped a little at his blank expression. “Seriously? You walked in the room and I was bawling my fucking eyes out while Bulma and Trunks were trying to comfort me. You don’t remember that?”

Now that she mentioned it, he vaguely recalled Bulma mentioning to him in bed that Usagi had gone through a really horrific break-up. “He cheated on you,” he remembered. Then he blinked and snorted, his eyes glittering with suppressed anger. “Fucking jackass.”

Usagi shrugged, as if she’d called him more than that and then some. “It was a long time ago. I miss him sometimes, though. He was funny… a real smartass. And he was fun to spend time with. He’s a doctor now, if I remember correctly,” she added absently before emptying her glass.

Vegeta nodded, wiped his mouth on a napkin, and pushed his plate to the side. “Sure you don’t want anymore? I think the boy ordered a cake for dessert.”

Usagi shook her head and patted her stomach. “Kami, no. I’m stuffed, thank you. And Vegeta…? It was wonderful.”

The way her eyes sparkled and a light blush crept over her face made performing what Vegeta considered the most demeaning of chores worthwhile. “Welcome, woman.” He wrapped up the remains hurriedly before pulling out another bottle of wine and nodding towards the day room wordlessly, where he followed her and poured them each a glass. He took a sip while he watched her toy with the wineglass for a moment, a mischievous smirk playing on her mouth, but when she didn’t say anything his curiosity got the better of him. “Alright, woman. Spit it out.”

“Vegeta… have you played Never Have I Ever?” She grinned when he shook his head. “Oh, gods… I’m going to regret playing this with my boss in the morning, I know it. Alright… you say something you’ve never done before—and nothing’s taboo, either—and if the other person’s done that thing, they have to drink.”

“Are you challenging me to a drinking game, woman?”

Usagi shook her head and shrugged. “I just thought it would be… you know. Fun. And a way to get to know each other without actually talking a lot… since neither of us really talk about ourselves. And don’t worry, my alcohol tolerance is actually pretty legendary.”

“Huh. Woman, that’s not a bad idea,” Vegeta admitted. “Alright, I’m game. But we’re going to need more alcohol than this. Hang on.” He stepped out for a moment and came back with a couple more bottles of wine, and set them down on the table with a grin. “Now… how exactly do we play?”

“Ok. I’ll start simple. Never have I ever had a child.”

“Feh. You _would_ start with something that I’d have to take a drink on,” Vegeta snorted, followed by a swallow from his glass.

“But that’s the whole point of the game, boss man,” Usagi chuckled. “Your turn.”

Vegeta smirked, thought for a moment, then nodded. “Never have I ever worn underwear.”

Usagi blushed a little before she drank. “Well… I thought we’d start platonic and work our way up, but you decided to get straight to the point,” she chuckled dryly.

“Woman, I’m _always_ to the point, and I knew where this was headed,” Vegeta laughed. “So tell me all your dirty little secrets while we’re still sober.”

“Ok, fine then. I don’t want to be the only total prude in this game. I’ve never had someone of the opposite sex cook for me.” Usagi grinned when he rolled his eyes and drank.

“That wasn’t a prudish question? Gods, woman. Hm. I’ve never been to a hospital.”

“What? Really? With all those scars of yours? And it wasn’t prudish,” she added quickly. “I thought it was actually kind of sexy.” Usagi rolled her eyes and drank when he pointed at her glass. “Now tell me how you’ve managed not to wind up in the hospital with all those scars.”

Vegeta just shrugged. “Self-treated the wounds that didn’t require some help; senzu beans for the mortal wounds.” The med tank didn’t count as a hospital, either. At least not to him.

“Wow, you’ve got balls. Alright, you wanted me to get a little dirty? I’ve never had a woman get me off,” she chuckled.

Vegeta drank and rolled his eyes. “And I’ve never had a man get me off.” When she didn’t drink and just looked away and turned red, his jaw dropped a little. “Explain,” he said slowly.

“Uh, well… you know. It didn’t really hurt or anything after the first time, but… it wasn’t like what my friend Minako told me about, either.”

“But he didn’t bother to at least return the favor?” Vegeta snorted in contempt. “Even if you were stupid teenagers, he could have still taken care of you after the deed was done. Dear Kami… and you call _me_ an asshole. I believe firmly in the ‘ladies first’ rule.” He snorted a little as a new thought went through his head. “Please tell me you know how to at least get yourself off.”

“Never have I ever succeeded at it.”

“Well, I haven’t either, so I’m not drinking.”

Usagi cocked a brow and snorted. “Your eyes are turning brown, Vegeta.”

“Not full of shit, woman. I’ve never succeeded in getting _you_ off. Not _yet_ , anyway.” The prince laughed when she spat out something vulgar in Japanese and glared at him. “I’ve never submitted to being on bottom in bed.” He grinned when she just gaped a little. “What? I enjoy doing the work,” he chuckled, followed by a quick wink at her incredulous expression as she refilled her glass and took a swallow.

“Ok, if we’re going to start this sort of pissing contest, there’s an awful lot I haven’t done, and you’re going to be wasted by the end of the game, Vegeta. And I’d rather not have you drunk if I’m going to actually let you cash in on second base. Hm… I’ve never made out on a couch before, you know.”

Vegeta emptied his glass and refilled it. “Would you like to?” He asked seriously.

When he took her glass and set both of them on the coffee table before leaning in a little, Usagi stopped him. “Where’s Trunks at, Vegeta?”

“Staying at his friend’s for the night. Why? Afraid you’ll be too noisy?”

“It’s just second base, Vegeta. I think I can restrain myself from screaming your name. I was just worried about someone walking in on us.”

Doing a quick check for any other kis in the house, Vegeta nodded a little and tugged her to her feet. “There’s still a couple maids working a few rooms over… and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be caught in a compromising position… or _several_ of them… with the boss,” he snickered.

“I have a feeling you’re _always_ getting way too ahead of yourself, Vegeta.”

Damn it, he could _hope_ , couldn’t he? “So you’d like to get caught on the couch topless?” He countered smoothly the moment they were at his door.

“And who said I was letting you cash in on it tonight, Mr. Overeager?” Usagi asked with a straight face. But when Vegeta’s jaw twitched a little and he frowned, Usagi snorted and giggled. “I was kidding, Vegeta.”

“Come on, then,” he purred, opening his door before jerking her in and shutting and locking it behind them. But when he turned to claim his prize, he found her looking around a little nervously, wringing her hands as he studied her. “We’ll continue the game in here,” he suggested, striding over to his nightstand to produce a bottle of scotch from the drawer and a single glass. Vegeta slid onto the bed, smoothly crossing his legs at the ankle, and leaned back against the headboard, radiating sex with the tiny smile playing on his lips. “Well, woman? Are you playing or not? I believe it was my turn.”

“Somehow, I see myself regretting this in the morning,” she grumbled. “Go ahead, your turn.”

“I’ve never been a woman’s first orgasm.” Vegeta grinned when she blushed and looked away again and he scooted a little closer to her.

“I can’t think of a question,” she admitted shyly after a long, quiet minute.

“Usagi?” With a smirk, he turned his face to his and just barely touched his lips to hers, the lightest of kisses. “Let me get to third, and I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

“I—um…” She appreciated that he was waiting for permission, and realized with a touch of amazement at how much of a gentleman he was being. He could have gotten to second, seduced the hell out of her to round the next base, but instead he was… asking? “I don’t know,” she whispered truthfully.

“Kami, woman. The fact that you’ve never gotten off before… I feel like it’s a subtle challenge or something,” Vegeta breathed against her mouth before pressing it to hers once more. “Let me show you what it’s like, Usa.”

Gods, she was so tempted, not only by his words, but by the way he was obviously reading her subtle body language; he was clearly being patient in an effort not to spook her. “Vegeta? What if I’m one of those few unlucky women that just… _can’t_? I don’t… you know. Want you to take offense if it’s not possible or anything.”

“Usagi, give me ten minutes, and if I can’t get you off at least once, I’ll publicly proclaim myself a woman,” he stated seriously. “But… if I can…?”

His eyes filled in the blanks and Usagi regarded him nervously, her gaze darting back and forth as she chewed her lower lip. If she let him do this, and he succeeded, he wanted to go all the way. And frankly, if he did succeed, Usagi wouldn’t have a single objection to him slaking his lust inside of her, finally surrendering her body to the ridiculously sensual man that lurked beneath his tough-guy, badass façade.

Vegeta licked his lips when she gave him the barest of nervous nods. “Vegeta… I’m willing to do this, and possibly wind up going to bed with you, but… I still work for you in the morning,” she whispered, finding herself turned on by the prospect of feeling those large, calloused hands on her. Maybe it was all the wine, but she was ridiculously attracted to him and she’d be a liar if she indicated otherwise.

“Discreet’s my middle name, woman,” he rumbled, his mouth already trailing up and down her throat, setting her pulse to race in a thready rhythm. “Lay down,” he urged. “Relax and let me take care of you, Usa.” His mouth moved to the other side of her neck as his hands slowly began to wander down her sides, staying away from where he wanted to touch her the most.

He’d go slow and take his time in order to draw out her pleasure as long as he could, to show her what an attentive lover he could be when properly inspired. “No,” he whispered, when she began to touch him in return, “just lay there and enjoy this, Usa. Let me do the work.” Vegeta finally kissed her then, once his mouth had roamed her neck thoroughly and nibbled its way over her jaw, and his mouth was slow as it explored hers and he felt her sigh with pleasure against his lips. His hands began to wander a little more boldly then, still slow, but with more of a purpose as they smoothed up her thighs before pulling her into a better angle so that he fit against her curves more snugly.

Usagi lifted her head just a little when she felt his fingers questing for the clasp of her halter top, and while he unfastened it, he didn’t begin to bare her yet; he only continued to kiss her and caress her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him, and it made her heart skip a beat on more than one occasion.

Even when he’d taken her virginity, Mamoru hadn’t been quite this tender, quite this gentle and slow with her, and Usagi found a small part of her regretting the fact that she hadn’t saved her innocence for the man that was currently on top of her… even if he was her boss, and not her betrothed.

Only when he could scent her arousal reaching a level that was making her a little frustrated did Vegeta move on, sliding the top portion of her dress down as his lips broke from hers to follow the path of his hands to the top swell of her breast. “I lied,” he breathed against her skin, “at this pace it’ll take me more than ten minutes.”

“Don’t stop,” she whimpered, arching a little to offer her breast when he nipped at it through the lace of her bra. “Please don’t stop, Vegeta.”

He was back to her lips again, kissing her slowly. He hadn’t even slipped his tongue into her mouth yet, but she was opening to him, her own tongue flicking against his lips in a blatant invitation to deepen the kiss as her hands trailed a path through his hair. “Won’t stop unless you tell me to,” he promised as he deftly unfastened the front clasp of her bra with one hand while the other slid around from her hip to tease the inside of her thigh. “Don’t know if I could if you did,” he admitted hoarsely as his mouth trailed back down the silky column of her throat. “You’re the best thing I’ve ever tasted, Usa.”

Her only response to that was to make a soft, very feminine sound of pleasure as his tongue flicked over one taut nipple, followed by a slow open-mouth kiss to it and a swirl of sensation around the edge before he merely flicked it again and moved to the underside of her breast despite her cues for more attention to the sensitive bud.

“Slow,” Vegeta purred, not ignorant of the way she was trying to draw his mouth back up to the peak of her breast. “It’s what you deserve, Usa.” He trailed over to its twin and bestowed upon it the same attention, but when she moved against him and whined something in Japanese, he humored her with a single long suck, drawing a needy moan from her throat. “Getting impatient, beautiful?”

“Yes,” she admitted with a sigh, her fingers bunching in his hair as he moved to the other breast to suckle it as well.

Vegeta chuckled at that and gave her a playful nip, making her gasp. “Think of this as one of your business meetings,” he teased. “There has to be a considerable amount of foreplay before we can close the deal.”

“If you don’t get the lead out of your ass, Vegeta, I’ll sell my stocks to someone else,” she retorted with a smirk.

He growled a little at that, his Saiyan rising to the forefront to bare his teeth and bite down lightly on her shoulder. She’d been joking, yes, but as far as his inner beast was concerned, her words were a blatant challenge that needed to be met, and the prince found himself forcibly resisting the urge to take her then and there to assert himself as the dominant party. “Your company will never go public, woman. It’s privately owned, and I’m buying you out.”

Usagi couldn’t come up with a proper comeback for that when he suddenly slid his fingers up her thigh and stroked the damp spot of her underwear, causing her to arch and make a soft, encouraging sound. “Please,” she whispered. She could feel it now, there was something there that she’d only felt in private, late at night, but had never quite achieved on her own. And damn it, her entire body was aching to experience it just once, with him.

“Heh, so you accept my venture for your company, woman? You’re ready to close the deal?”

“You’re so fucking sexy when you talk dirty about business,” she moaned helplessly, lifting her hips again as his fingers moved a little more firmly over the silk of her panties. Usagi made a disappointed sound when his hand suddenly retreated, but then she realized that he was slowly stripping her of the remainder of her dress before hooking his thumbs in the strings at her hips and sliding her panties down slowly as he followed the path of silk with his mouth to the tops of her thigh-highs.

The nylons were sexy, but Vegeta removed those as well, wanting her completely bared to him. He kissed her again once her clothes were on his floor, and this time there was little restraint to it as his tongue tangled with hers and he growled with need. “Are you ready?” he asked between heated, demanding kisses, sliding his fingers over her curls as she moaned her response and clung to him tightly.

“Please, Vegeta, I want you.” Her head tipped back slightly, baring her throat as his fingers slipped into her folds and went straight for her nub. There was no more teasing, no more slow and gentle build-up to what was coming. His expert touch was steady as he applied just the right pressure to have her moaning in response, writhing beneath him as he showed her what she’d been missing during the twelve years since she’d given herself to Mamoru. “It’s too much,” she whimpered after several minutes of that building heat in her belly.

Vegeta backed off a little as he nipped and sucked at her breasts, moving his fingers to thrust into her drenched core at a slow and easy pace. “Relax,” he breathed as he felt how insanely tight she’d become. “Don’t tense up so much, or I won’t be able to take you.”

That made her fight to relax a bit, to breathe more evenly as he continued to thrust those deliciously calloused fingers into her while his mouth worshiped her throat and breasts. Kami, she wanted him so badly that she was ready to flip them and take over, something she’d never done before in her life. Usagi drew him up for another intense kiss as she practically purred at the pleasure between her legs, and ignored his order to stop as she began to unbutton his shirt so that she could finally explore all of those wonderful muscles. “Want you now,” she whispered desperately, the words echoed by a lifting of her hips and a wrapping of one of her legs around his waist.

“Not until you come for me, Usa. In fact,” he added, not bothering to finish the thought out loud as he announced the rest of the statement with his body. He slid down her form, kissing her in strategic areas, and got straight to the point as he parted her folds with his tongue and continued to hook his fingers inside of her. Vegeta felt a surge of triumph as she roughly gripped his hair, thighs wrapping around his shoulders, her voice practically singing his praises as he began to suck at her clit and thrust into her a little harder.

“Oh Kami, Vegeta… right there… yes, _please_ don’t stop,” she begged frantically as the pleasure began to reach a whole new peak for her. Usagi then felt him growl into her heat, and the vibration was her undoing, sending her crashing over some sort of metaphorical cliff as she cried out hoarsely and bucked once before arching stiffly and moaning his name.

“That’s more like it,” he growled, once he’d ridden out her climax with a series of slow, gentle sucks to the sensitive area. “Want you now,” he groaned as he slid back up, followed by a vicious, almost primal claiming of her mouth.

Usagi’s response was to lift her hips in invitation as she fumbled with his pants through the haze of desire clouding both her reflexes and her vision. After a serious effort with the button of his slacks, she finally felt him, hot and hard, pressing against her inner thigh. “Then take me,” she breathed in response to his previous statement. “Make love to me, Vegeta.”

The Saiyan prince could only groan happily at the sound of her words, but he didn’t hesitate to press into her folds, wetting himself with the results of her arousal before resting at her entrance for a moment. “Relax,” he reminded her huskily.

Now Usagi knew why he was insisting on her lack of tension, even if the presence of it at the moment meant she was eager to feel him inside of her. Kami, what she’d felt through his pants early that morning and in his bed had only hinted at what she was getting herself into! “Please, Vegeta,” she begged softly, gripping at his lower back to press him into her. “I need you.”

Hearing those words set his beast to roaring, and Vegeta could hold back no longer as he began to slowly thrust into her, stopping every time he met some tight resistance to ease her and relax her whenever she flinched a little in discomfort. He’d wanted to wait a moment to make it easier on her, but she’d said she needed him, and his inner Saiyan wasn’t about to deny its chosen mate his body.

“Need all of you,” she whimpered when she sensed him holding back, and she raised her hips once more to emphasize her words. Usagi moaned softly as he resumed to gradually fill her, and once he was fully seated inside her, his mouth exploring her throat, she begged wordlessly for him to move.

That first tentative thrust had her gasping in a mix of pain and pleasure as he stretched her, but his hands and mouth were still wandering, his kisses soothing the ache as he thrust again and groaned at the tight friction surrounding him. “Won’t last long,” he warned her. “You feel so good, Usa… and it’s been so long…”

“Come for me,” she urged, “I want you to.”

“No,” he growled into her hair, “you’ll have your pleasure first, woman.” His eyes rolled back a little as she met his next thrust head-on, and her raspy moan had him fighting back the urge to explode. But he was as good as his word—or at least his beast was, since that’s who was really in control at the moment—and it wasn’t until she was whimpering and stiffening in his arms that he allowed himself his own release. The prince groaned softly as he felt her tighten around him, milking him with every little thrust he made to ride out her climax, and when he could take no more, he collapsed on top of her in a sweaty heap. “Woman… that was arguably the best orgasm I’ve ever had,” he breathed into her golden crown. “You alright?” He asked when she didn’t respond; she was breathing heavily as she kept her legs locked around his waist, the feeling of her breath on his chest sending a shiver of pleasure down his spine as it cooled the droplets of sweat on his flesh.

He relaxed when he heard her chuckle lightly, relieved that she was laughing. He’d expected anger at herself, projected onto him, or even a little of that shyness he’d glimpsed beneath her usually bold exterior. He’d been afraid that she’d be in pain as well, but apparently that was not the case. “You’re laughing?” He snorted.

“I… sorry,” she giggled. “I think it was the best orgasm I’ve ever had, too!” She laughed into his neck.

Vegeta understood then, and he grinned as he bent his head and kissed her. “ ** _Two_** ,” he corrected, “give the devil his due, woman. And I’m prepared to add more to that tally in just a minute,” he added softly in her ear. Her genuine look of surprise had him grinning again. “Oh, I’m not done with you, Usagi. _Not by a long shot_.”

If only she knew.


	10. Chapter 10

Usagi groaned a little at the ache that encompassed her entire body, and stretched in a feline-like manner before stiffening at the feeling of her bare skin sliding over the flesh of another. She opened her eyes to find Vegeta facing her, studying her with amusement, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist while his free hand absently ran through her golden tresses.

                “ _Oh, shit._ We _didn’t,_ ” Usagi moaned in embarrassment, burying her face in his chest to keep from looking up at him.

                “Oh please, woman. You didn’t have _that_ much to drink,” Vegeta chuckled.

                “No, I didn’t,” she sighed. Oh, she remembered it, alright. Every single toe-curling, earth-shaking moment of it. And it had been _spectacular_. But it had been with the boss! What in the hell had possessed her to—ok, fine. That was the retarded question of the year. She _knew_ what had possessed her. He’d been gentle and even undemanding while he’d seduced her with words and logic. But she’d wanted him, too. She’d wanted him for a while now, ever since her first encounter with him as Sailor Moon, even if it had only been a glimmer of desire and curiosity in the back of her mind.

                “You’re upset,” he sighed, more than a touch disappointed at her reaction. He’d steeled himself for it, but her implied rejection still hurt him deeply.

                “I’m not upset with _you_ ,” she corrected gently, “just myself. This has to be the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever done.”

                “Kami, woman, is _that_ it!?” Vegeta snapped, rolling out of bed to tug on some fresh clothes. “You and this damned job, woman, I swear! You actually think I’d hold this against you, don’t you? Or that I’d pressure you for more even if you weren’t willing? Is that it, too? I could understand if you were simply not ready for my bed, but **_no_** , you’re upset because of your fucking **_job_** ,” he spat in contempt.

                Clutching the sheet to her chest as she sat up slowly, Usagi looked away from him to search for her own clothes so she could participate in the Walk of Shame back to her room in what she’d worn the night before. He was angry with her for being upset, and his anger pricked at her already bruised feelings. Hell, she was already beating herself up enough as it was without his temper adding to it.

                Vegeta growled at himself in frustration when he saw the emotional anguish in her eyes, and felt his beast rise up in a demand to comfort his mate. “Damn it, woman. I’m sorry, come here and—“

                “No,” she said softly. “This was a mistake, Ve— _Mr. Briefs_. It won’t happen again, I assure you. If you require my resignation, I’ll have it to you by this evening,” she added without a hint of emotion. Usagi hooked the clasp behind her neck before scooping up the rest of her things and leaving the room quickly, unwilling to hear any protest he might come up with, and made sure to lock her own door behind her. She let the tears come then, crying in utter embarrassment for the way she’d behaved the night before.

                Kami, what did he think of her now!? She worked for him, she was his employee, and she’d actually spread her legs for him! But he’d just said… was he implying that he wanted something more? No, that couldn’t be it, he’d just spewed all of that out in the heat of the moment when he’d gotten angry at her reaction upon waking in his arms. One thing was for sure, at least. It was a onetime thing, and Usagi would _never_ let it happen again.

###################

                “Usa-momma?” Trunks said easily as he entered the kitchen, grinning at the sight of all the pots and pans in the sink that still needed to be washed, the leftover bottle of wine on the table, and what looked like a few bottles of wine—two of them unopened—on the table that he could see through the door to the day room. That was a good sign. A _very_ good sign!

                But when she turned around, Trunks went rigid at the sight of her glassy eyes, proof that she’d been crying that morning. “Usa-momma?” He asked carefully, “what’s wrong?”

                “Nothing,” she said roughly, hiding her frown in her coffee cup as she took a swig.

                Nothing his ass. He’d detected that hint of a tremble in her voice, a telltale sign that she was very upset. Trunks knew that sound probably better than anyone in her life, and he wasn’t going to let it go unanswered. “Tell me what happened.”

                Usagi hesitated, her eyes darting away from him and at the floor, but when she opened her mouth to speak, she closed it abruptly when Vegeta came in through the back door, her eyes flashing with mixed emotions as she swiftly exited the room.

                “What happened?” Trunks growled dangerously at his father, completely uncaring that the crown prince could easily put him in the dirt. “What did you say to her to make her cry, Father!?”

                “It’s not any of your business, boy. Drop it if you don’t want your ass beaten. It’s between myself and Usagi,” he reiterated when the younger prince opened his mouth to say something else.

                Before Trunks could push the issue, Usagi came back in, walking briskly through the kitchen with her purse slung over her shoulder. “Trunks, I’m going out for a while if Piccolo’s agreeable,” she said shortly. “I’ll clean up this mess when I get back,” she added with a particular snort that she only gave when she was angry.

                She was out the door, and Trunks was glaring at the shorter Saiyan malevolently. “You’ll fix this, Father, or you and I are going to fight.”

                “You’ll lose, boy,” Vegeta huffed in contempt.

                “That may be true, Father, but I guaran-fucking-tee that you’ll _know_ I was there,” he replied as he followed Usagi out the door.

                But Trunks was too late to intercept the blonde; Piccolo was already flying her through the air towards South City. “Usagi looked pretty upset,” Goku rumbled.

                “Something to do with Father. I don’t know what happened, honestly.”

                “Well, she reeked of him, if that’s any indication.”

                Trunks hadn’t gotten close enough to pick up her scent, but since Goku was full-blooded, he would have been able to smell her easily from several feet away. “How strong?” He asked softly.

                “Well…” Goku began delicately, blushing a little. “It’s kind of obvious that…” He shook his head in embarrassment. “Let’s just say that the scent was very, _very_ strong. I didn’t see a mark on her, though.”

                “Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” Trunks sighed, increasingly troubled with this new information. So, they had wound up sleeping together, but apparently one of them—likely his father—had said something to upset the other, and now Usagi was avoiding Vegeta’s presence like the plague.

                “You’ll just get your ass kicked, Trunks,” Goku sighed knowingly. “I’ll talk to him. At least I’ll be able to avoid getting a complete beatdown.”

                “Thank you,” Trunks sighed in relief. “Let me know when you’ve gotten to the bottom of it all.”

                “If my jaw isn’t broken,” Goku chuckled.

#####################

                “Do I want to know?” Piccolo muttered. He had a feeling that the occasional tear leaving her eye before flicking out on the wind wasn’t because of the rush of air in her face as they flew.

                “I’ll be fine. I just want to check up on a few people, and then I’m going to lose my thoughts while I shop for several hours. Shopping always makes me feel better,” she sighed. 

                “I don’t think it would be wise for me to be seen in the city, Usagi.”

                “Oh, yeah. The whole green skin and claws thing. Well, I have a solution for that, don’t worry. Just land on a roof or something on the outskirts and I’ll use my magic on you.” They flew the rest of the way in silence, and when they landed, Usagi pulled out her disguise pen. “Disguise power… turn him human… I guess?”

                Piccolo blinked and looked down at his flesh-toned hands and jumped a little in reaction. “What the hell!?”

                Usagi shrugged. “Don’t worry, it’s only temporary,” she assured him. The princess of the moon blinked, then chuckled when he looked down his pants and his eyes got absolutely huge. “What? Did it make it smaller or something?”

                “No!” Piccolo shouted. “I’m not supposed to have one! AT ALL!”

                Usagi was too intrigued to blush and just stared at him. “Then how in the hell do Namekians go pee?”

                “We sweat out the toxins and the excess moisture in our bodies,” he grunted, shaking his head at the sight of what was between his legs. Piccolo decided to just get over it; she’d said it was only temporary, after all. When he looked up, Usagi had disguised herself as well, sporting a short brunette hair-do. “Where to first?”

                “It’s within walking distance, come on.” Usagi let him scoop her up again and held on as he jumped from the building and they landed in an empty alleyway. “I’m going to check on my Senshi,” she explained as they turned onto Cherry St. “Three in particular. Diamond said he wouldn’t harm them when I threatened to kill myself in retaliation, but it doesn’t mean I can trust him.”

                “Should we perhaps get some people to keep an eye on them? I know a couple people who wouldn’t mind watching out for your guardians.”

                Usagi sighed and nodded. “So long as they’re discreet and they don’t know why,” she agreed. “Is that possible?”

                Piccolo thought for a moment before nodding. “As my students, they wouldn’t question me. Much, anyway. There’s two of them… at least, the two that’ll do it without much questioning,” he amended, not wanting to give away any names, and in turn, the Sons’ big secret. “I suppose I can keep an eye on the third.” He’d ask Trunks, but Trunks would want to know why and would give him the hardest time.

                Usagi hugged him, grinning when he stiffened a little at the unexpected contact. “Thank you, Piccolo, I owe you for this. Here, come on.” She pointed to the Hikawa shrine, and when they drew even with it, they saw Rei manning the charm stand. “That’s Hino Rei, the princess of Mars.”

                Piccolo noticed her wistful, sad little smile when they turned away. “You miss her. Why don’t you go talk to her?”

                “Iie. Rei’s psychic, and that last thing I want is for her to take one look at me and remember. They all wanted normal lives, Piccolo. After everything they’ve done for me, all of the sacrifices and the heartbreak, the inability to just be _normal_ … it’s the very least I can do for my girls. I can take care of myself now, for the most part, anyway.” Usagi kicked a pebble outside the hospital before lighting a cigarette and pointing. “Ami-chan and Hota-chan usually come out together for a smoke break right about now.”

                “You know them well,” Piccolo rumbled.

                “Yeah, I’ve only been stalking them since I was eighteen or nineteen,” she snorted. “I think they’re dating, too,” she added with a chuckle. “Who would’ve thought that Ami-chan had a thing for girls? Explains an awful lot about those all-girl sleepovers when we were teenagers. Hotaru was raised by Haruka and Michiru—they were lovers, you know—so _her,_ that’s not a big surprise. But Ami?” Usagi laughed again and grinned when the two former Senshi walked out of the hospital, arms wrapped around each other, both of them walking with an ease that spoke of years of that type of contact. 

                “Which one is the target?” Piccolo ask, studying them carefully. They were lovers, alright, you could tell by simply reading their body language. The way they stood closer than friends would, the way they touched frequently without really giving it any thought.           

                “Blue hair. Come on, Mako’s bakery isn’t far.”

                “I know who I’ll put at the hospital. He already works here as a physician.”

                “Excellent, that makes it even easier.”

                Piccolo smirked when they only walked a block and stood in front of a small brick building. “Did it ever occur to you that they’re all awfully close to each other?”

                Usagi nodded and shrugged. “Of course it did. Which is why I try to stay away from them and not make any kind of contact. Despite my efforts, we all still gravitate towards each other,” she mumbled in annoyance. “What?” She asked curiously, when he looked in the window and froze.

                Piccolo could only blink and stare at the woman behind the counter as he felt a strange pull towards her… followed by a movement in his pants that severely freaked him out. “Dear gods! Change me back! Change me back _now_!”

                “Huh? What? Why, Piccolo, what’s wrong!?” Usagi exclaimed, grabbing him by the arm and leading him into the nearby park to calm him down. “Stop freaking out already and tell me what’s wrong!” She ordered when he continued to shake his head and give her that shell-shocked look. Finally she drew the tall, sexy dark-haired man into her arms and hugged him tightly as she flooded him with the healing light from the silver crystal. “There, much better,” she whispered, giving him a gentle pat on the back. “Now tell me what happened, Piccolo. Did you know Mako from somewhere or something?”

                “No, I uh…” He felt heat flood his face and vigorously shook his head. “I felt it… you know.” Piccolo looked down pointedly, then back up at her with wide eyes.

                “Ugh… is that seriously _all_? It’s normal,” she sighed, trying and failing miserably not to giggle when his terror-filled eyes just looked down at her. “It means you like her. I’m assuming you saw Makoto through the window?” Usagi smiled when he nodded, his eyes still huge. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to her. Just think of something that grosses you out if you feel it happen again.”

                “I thought you preferred to stay away from your Senshi,” he protested.

                “Yeah, but you’ve never had Mako’s food, either. I always go in in disguise, and I almost never talk to her, though she’s tried to draw me into conversation on several occasions.

                Usagi drug him inside, and the moment they were in the door, she could see the princess of Jupiter staring at the disguised Namekian beside her. She nearly laughed when she heard Mako mutter something about her old sempai, but for Piccolo’s sake she kept it contained. “Ohayo,” she said brightly. “I heard you serve the best cheesecake in the universe here.”

                That seemed to snap Mako out of her daze, and the brunette grinned and nodded. “Hai, I do. Would you each care for a piece?” She prepared two slices on separate plates when Usagi nodded enthusiastically, and led them to a small table after a moment. “Call if you want anything else,” she instructed, laying the bill in front of them.

                “Go on,” Usagi urged, “eat it. Take a bite.”

                “But… but Namekians don’t eat,” he whispered across the table.

                Usagi rolled her eyes, took a forkful of his slice, and shoved it in his mouth before he could utter one more protest. She grinned at the look on his face and nodded in satisfaction when he lowered his gaze to stare at the food in front of him like it was some sort of holy relic. “Pretty fucking good, huh?”

                Piccolo nodded blankly before looking up at the woman behind the counter, who was watching them but acting like she wasn’t. “You made this?”

                Makoto smirked and nodded. “Yup. I bake everything in the store myself.”

                “This… this is amazing,” Piccolo replied with a touch of awe. He took another bite on his own and moaned softly as the rich, sweet taste hit his tastebuds and filled him with delicious warmth. “I think I’m in love,” he mumbled as he dug into the confection, savoring each bite for a long moment before he even started to chew.

                “And I think Mako is, too,” Usagi whispered under her breath, watching the brunette blush and look away from out of the corner of her eye. “I guess that tells me who’s watching her, huh?”

                Piccolo merely grunted rolled his eyes a little bit; whatever the Queen of the Stars thought she was doing, it was not going to happen.  

 

#########################

                Back at the building, Usagi waved her disguise pen and shook back the golden tresses that suddenly spilled around her. She almost missed that shorter hairstyle, but no; she preferred to keep it long. “Ready?” She asked.

                Piccolo just stared at her and shook his head in annoyance. “You missed a spot, woman,” he growled, pointing down with a single claw to his groin.

                Usagi snickered and shook her head. “Haha, Piccolo. Very funny.”

                “It’s not a joke, Usagi. Fix it now!” He snapped.

                The moon princess blinked and stared for a second before approaching him and pulling the hem of his trousers forward to see for herself, and what greeted her eyes was… impressive. To say the least. “What the deuce?” Usagi waved her pen over him once more, looked again, and when there was no change she shook her head in wonder. “I—Piccolo… I honestly don’t have a single fucking clue what’s going on here. It was only a type of magical glamour… it wasn’t _real.”_

                “Sure as hell feels and looks real,” Piccolo retorted. “Fix it now. Please,” he added quickly as he tried his best not to freak out.

                “I… ok. Last resort.” Usagi transformed into Neo Queen Serenity as she brought the silver crystal out of her chest, and when she held it in front of him and lowered it towards his groin, the crystal pulsed as it communicated with her. “Oh, no,” she groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her free hand. She sent Piccolo a shaky smile when it was clear that the Namekian was about to start screaming at her, and quickly put the crystal away.

                “You see,” she began slowly, “the silver crystal sort of has… a mind of its own.”

                “Get to the point, Usagi,” he ground through his teeth.

                She sighed and nodded. “It thinks it healed you,” she said quickly.

                “IT **_WHAT_**!?”

                Usagi took a couple quick steps back, her hands in front of her as she cringed and shook her head. “I didn’t do it, honest! The disguise pen draws off of the power of the crystal, and when I used it on you, it thought that you were basically… you know. Missing a body part. So it thought that it had fixed you. It’ll take me some time, but I should be able to figure out a way to reverse it, ok?” She babbled out hurriedly. “I’m sorry!” She added again. “It’s not like I _knew_ that this would happen, Piccolo!”

                “Let’s get back,” he grunted, “so you can sit down with that thing and explain to it that Namekians _don’t_ have dicks.”

                “No, you act like one more than enough on your own.”

#############################

 

                “I’ll be fine by myself, Piccolo, don’t worry.”

                “I realize that, but I’d feel better about leaving you once this guy shows up. I’d like to meet him at any rate, since you said he uses ki. Chances are that I know him already,” Piccolo replied sternly. Sure enough, he felt a suppressed and masked ki land behind them and turned.

                Vegeta smirked behind the bandana at the look on the Namek’s face; the jaw-dropping shock was worthy of actually taking a picture. “Namek,” Vegeta said smoothly.

                “Y—Y—YOU!?”

                “Eloquent in its brevity,” Sailor Moon chuckled. “So… I take it you know each other?”

                “The Namek and I have had a few… runs in in the past,” Casper grunted. “And I swear to Dende, Namek… if you give me away, I’ll rip you a new asshole before I turn you into dust. Got me?” He growled in warning.  

                Piccolo merely nodded a little, clearly still in shock. Vegeta was the one helping out the Queen of the Stars!? Of course, Vegeta was no longer exactly _evil_ … but he was still a selfish, arrogant, prideful douchebag. The fact that he was helping The Light of Hope not only raised Piccolo’s respect for him a few notches, but it also made him wonder why he hadn’t thought of it sooner. He’d known that Sailor Moon was Cosmos, but he’d been sitting on his ass and hadn’t lifted a finger to help her.

                Then the Namek smirked and tried his best not to laugh. Vegeta was so going to get his ass handed to him when Usagi found out it was him! “What, Namek, do you find this all amusing?” Vegeta barked.

                “Actually, yes,” he confessed. “Extremely. And if the roles were reversed you’d feel the same.”

                Vegeta grunted and rolled his eyes. It was true, but he wasn’t going to admit it, damn it. “Go away, Namek. We don’t need _your_ help to do this job.”

                “Excuse me?” Sailor Moon huffed. “Piccolo is more than welcome to help us out, and in fact I’d love to have the extra set of eyes and ears for this job, Cas.”

                “No,” Piccolo grunted. “Cas is right. He and I have never worked well together unless it’s under the most extreme of circumstances. He can’t take orders and neither can I. I’ll be waiting here when you’re ready for me to escort you back.”                            

                Usagi shrugged, but Vegeta gave Piccolo a curt nod before scooping up the heroine and flying with her through the air to another building, where he carefully set her back on her feet. “So, you guys hate each other?” She asked in confusion. “Piccolo seems like a really nice guy, Cas.”

                “Don’t hate him,” he grunted. “Just don’t like him. At all. I don’t mean to upset you,” he added softly when her eyes looked away from him a little sadly.

                “No, it’s not you. I was just thinking, is all,” she said with a dismissive wave. She’d been thinking about Vegeta and that morning, and how she hadn’t called him as Sailor Moon in a while to assure him of her safety. “It was a long day,” she sighed.

                Feigning ignorance, Vegeta leaned against part of the cement surrounding the air conditioner on the roof and waiting patiently, his arms crossed over his chest. “What happened?” He asked, not faking his curiosity. He knew what had happened, but to hear her speak it all calmly, from her point of view, without yelling in his face in anger—he definitely wanted to hear that. Maybe it would shed some light on her actions.

                “I was stupid,” she muttered. “I let someone get too close, and I got hurt for my trouble.”

                “Just like you said before,” he grunted in reply. “Who was it? You want me to take him out?” He laughed mentally at her horrified face as she quickly shook her head, and he fought to keep his expression stern as a result. “You like him, then.”

                “What, Cas? Are you jealous?” She chuckled half-heartedly. “Don’t be… he was a mistake. I shouldn’t have let him talk me into it, no matter how damned mind-blowing the sex was.” Usagi blushed when she realized she’d said that aloud. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to burden you with my problems, Cas.”

                “Talk if it makes you feel better,” he offered easily, not wanting her to stop. “Why was he a mistake?”

                “Because he’s my _boss_ ,” she groaned, leaning up against the cement right next to him, standing elbow to elbow. “Now he… I don’t know. I was worried about how this would affect my job, and how it would affect his son, too, and everything just came out the wrong way. I said things I didn’t mean to say… at least not _that_ way, you know?”

                “A son?” Vegeta grunted as if he didn’t already know all of this. “How old is he?”

                “Oh, he’s grown, but after his mom died, I sort of helped raise him. And the biggest part of all this, besides being able to run that house smoothly without my boss’s interference, is that I’m terrified that his son is going to be pissed as hell. Even if he _is_ grown, that’s still his father, and he loves his father very much. More than the boss man probably even realizes.”

                Vegeta tried not to stiffen at that, and pushed down a wave of guilt running through him. He hadn’t even considered the boy’s feelings on this matter at all. He was a grown Saiyan warrior, a prince, and if he chose to take a mate, it was his own damned business and nobody else’s. But if Trunks objected? Would he really object anyway? Huh, that was something to definitely bring up with the boy in the morning during their workout. The least he could do would be to give the brat a bit of a heads-up so it wouldn’t be such a shock. “If the son is an adult, I’m sure he’ll come to grips with it, even if he has a problem. That aside, what’s the big deal about your job, woman?”

                Usagi looked to the side and up into his eyes and just gaped. “What’s the big deal? I—it’s—do you have any **_clue_** just how hard I’ve worked to build that company up for Tru—er, his son!? Er… well, I guess you don’t,” she relented, shifting against him for a little warmth in the cold. “I started working there ten years ago, just before the wife died, and I’ve worked my ass off to build that company and make it prosper. The household runs like a well-oiled machine, and well… a change like this… it would be like throwing a wrench between the cogs. Or at least, it could be. I just want everything to be normal,” she sighed.

“Normal’s all I have, Cas. I wanted it, just like my Senshi, but I wasn’t permitted to erase my own memories. Believe me, I tried. I’m stuck like this. Destined to become Sailor Cosmos, Queen of the Stars, if not Neo Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo. And I don’t want it. I just want _normal_.” Usagi didn’t realize that she’d been crying until she felt the leather of his fingerless gloves cupping her jaw and his calloused thumbs smoothing away her tears. “Sorry.”

“You know, Moon… maybe if you explained all of that to him… I’m assuming he got angry after you said it the wrong way?” Vegeta tried to smile behind the bandana, and vowed he’d try to approach her in the morning with an apology. Now he understood, and as much of a stickler as he was for his own daily routine, he felt like an asshole for not immediately understanding what was going on in his mate’s head.

“Yes, and it hurt,” she whispered. “To answer your question, yes, I like him a little. I don’t know why though, honestly. On the likability scale, you’re a hell of a lot higher.”

Vegeta chortled at that and his smile became a grin. “So… does that mean I can get a piece of ass, too?” He teased.

Sailor Moon blinked and wondered if he was joking, and suddenly felt like a bit of a slut for considering the question. “Wow. I don’t get laid for ten years, and suddenly I have sexy men beating down my door,” she mused. “Not Diamond though,” she added quickly, making a face. “Not sexy in the least.”

“Giving in to what your body wants isn’t promiscuous, so long as you’re careful about it,” Vegeta offered knowingly. He smirked behind the bandana when he caught that flicker of desire in her eyes, which was quickly banked by a frown.

“Maybe for men,” she snorted. “Double standard and all. And sorry, Cas, but no. I’m not catching me some superhero strange on the rebound.”

“Can’t blame me for trying, moon goddess. Maybe another night?”

“Keep dreaming, sexy man,” Usagi chuckled, walking to the edge of the roof to partake of the all the city and Christmas lights.

“Wet dreams for sure, moon goddess,” Vegeta purred before scooping her up, chuckling at the way she squealed in surprise. “Come on. Same building, right?”

“Yeah,” she replied breathlessly. “Let’s go.” Usagi held onto him tightly as he flew them through the air, her heart beating a little faster than usual after he’d more than hinted that he wanted her. Kami, what was it about assholes that attracted her so much!?

But then again… yeah, he was an asshole, but on the other side of the coin, he’d saved her life several times. Hadn’t she been prepared to give Vegeta some sort of carnal thank you as Sailor Moon? Hm… maybe she would do the same for Casper… but Kami, the thought made her feel like such a slut! And at the same time it thoroughly aroused her—the thought of being wrapped around him as he plowed into her—she had no doubt that Casper wouldn’t be like Vegeta had been last night. He’d probably be rough and insatiable at first until his own pleasure was taken care of, and then he would likely focus on her. She hoped so, anyway.

Something about last night had woken her up a bit and opened her eyes to what sex could be like with a proper partner, and not some horny young college guy that didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. And she couldn’t help but admit—at least to herself—that she wanted more of it. Damn it, if only she’d handled this morning differently, she could have been in Vegeta’s bed at that very moment, moaning his name as he took her with the same level of tenderness as he had before.

Vegeta set her down carefully on the roof of the Yakuza’s office building, trying his best to hide a smirk at the scent of arousal plastered all over her body. She was thinking of him, he knew it in his bones, and he also knew he’d have no trouble seducing her.

Like Usagi, now that he’d had a taste, he wanted more. And his beast would not shut the fuck up until he’d had it.

“In through here,” she whispered quietly. “If my guess is right, they already know I’m here. That asshole sent me a picture of myself on this very roof.”

“Really?” Vegeta growled, but his anger was overcome with another interesting thought. “He’s obsessed with you, right?”

“Unbelievably,” Usagi sputtered. Then she squeaked loudly in surprise when Casper jerked her back into his arms and was kissing her with unrestrained passion, his hands wandering her with purpose as she opened to him without thinking and returned it. “Whoa,” she whispered, once he’d released her.

“Heh, I thought we’d give him something to fume about,” Casper snickered. “If he sends you a picture of _that_ , I want a fucking copy.”

“I’m sure you would,” Sailor Moon retorted as she headed towards the entrance to the roof. “Come on, let’s hurry up so I can get what I need.”

“I’ve got what you need, moon goddess,” Casper purred as he shoved ahead of her and checked the stairwell before allowing her to proceed. “Lots and lots of it. All you want,” he continued with a chuckle when she blushed and rolled her eyes at him. “Oh, come on. You can’t joke around about it?”

“No,” she snorted, “I can’t.” Not when she was already turned on as hell by his mere presence, especially after he’d kissed her so forcefully. And she had a pretty good idea that that wasn’t all he would do with such unrestrained dominance.

She quickly went into the same room she’d been in the last time and cut on a computer before he could word a protest. Usagi noted how he was checking every entrance and exit and barricading the ones he deemed too difficult to guard, before returning to her side to wait as she typed in commands and linked her Senshi computer to the one in front of her. “It’ll only take a minute,” she whispered. “It’s copying the hard drive, and I’ll go through it all later.”

Her computer beeped quietly after what seemed like a long wait, and Usagi hurriedly disconnected it, tucked it away, then unplugged the computer she was accessing when she heard footsteps down the hall.

“Shit,” Casper whispered. Without a second thought, he used his Saiyan speed to right all the barricades in the room so it would appear normal, then he scooped up the heroine and darted into a small, light-tight closet just as the footsteps got closer. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm beginning my exodus from fanfiction to AO3, and I'm sorry it took so long to update some of these stories on here when they've been finished for a long time! Enjoy! Leave me a comment if you get time!

“Well, this is a fine fucking mess we’ve gotten into,” Sailor Moon whispered sharply, pulling back her fist a little in the tight confines of the closet to thump him on the chest. “You couldn’t have used that speed to just take us back up?”

                “Shut up,” he whispered right back, doing everything that he could to ignore those delicious curves pressing tightly to him while he tried to keep an ear out for any approaching Yakuza. He heard some voices, but they were all headed the other way at the moment. “I think we might be in the clear,” he rumbled.

                “Wait a minute, they’ll sweep the whole building, and we’ll wind up getting caught if we try to leave now. There aren’t any windows up here, so we’ll have to sneak down to a lower level to exit if they cover the roof,” she replied. After a full minute of silence, she looked up at him even though she couldn’t see him in the pitch black. “Thank you, by the way. For saving me from getting caught.”

                “Not a problem.” Vegeta smirked to himself and leaned in a little closer; if he wanted to put the moves on her, now was the chance. And he’d been dying for some contact with his mate since that morning. “You can’t see me at all, can you?”

                “No,” she admitted. “Why?” Sailor Moon got the answer to her question when she felt a hot mouth brush over her own, and the resulting spark she instantly felt made her moan softly.

                Taking that as permission to continue, Vegeta lifted her tightly against him, pressing her to the back of the closet, and ground his immediate arousal into the stomach of her fuku. When she moaned again at the contact, he pulled away at the sound of voices coming closer and ki-shielded the door. “Have to be quiet,” he breathed in her ear before slowly dragging his lips down her throat.

                “I don’t think I can be,” she whimpered, rocking her hips into his slightly.

                “Do you want me to stop?”

                Between Vegeta showing her what intimacy could be like, and his attempted seductions as Sailor Moon whenever he patched her up, she was suffering from way too much pent-up sexual frustration to deny herself this opportunity for release. And with a total stranger, too, but… he’d only saved her life a half dozen times, and he clearly wasn’t one of the bad guys. And God, as much as she tried to deny it, she wanted him, had wanted him for days. “No,” she finally admitted.

                “Then you’ll have to be quiet.”

                But God, what was wrong with her!? He was a total stranger! She hadn’t even seen his face! “Fuck it,” she muttered to herself, dragging him down to her for a toe-curling kiss. She was a grown adult, _right_? She could do something reckless just once in her life without worrying about whether or not it was the responsible thing to do.

                Besides, this was downright exciting, kissing a masked man that she barely knew while they hid from the enemy in a tiny, light-tight closet. And damn if the man didn’t have some serious kissing skills going for him, too. And it was almost like he already knew what would set her off; his hands were wandering every little place they could find that had her purring with pleasure and rocking her hips for more as he kissed her thoroughly.

                “You sure?” He asked hoarsely, nipping at her breast through her bodice when she whimpered and rubbed against him suggestively.

                “What you said before… about not being… you know. A slut?” She whispered a little fearfully.

                “Moon, if I ever think that of you, I’ll kick myself in the damned balls. I want you. You want me. It’s as simple as that,” he whispered as quietly as possible.

                “Then don’t stop, Cas,” she replied just as softly, pulling his hips tightly to her own before she kissed him again.

                Vegeta bit back a moan as he tried to stay silent, and gave a little growl of frustration when he couldn’t find any buttons or snaps on her Senshi uniform. “Does this thing even come off?”

                “Can you see me?” She asked hesitantly.

                “Moon, there isn’t even a hint of light in here,” he snorted with amusement.

                “Then hang on,” she answered, still keeping her voice low. Sailor Moon smirked as she detransformed into Usagi and felt her hair pooling loosely around them; she didn’t miss how his fists  immediately dove into the strands as his mouth began to wander her throat once more. “Better?” She asked, now that she was dressed in an easily accessible skirt and tank top.

                “Much,” he grunted, jerking her shirt over her head to toss it on the floor. Vegeta made short work of her underwear as well, and when he felt her free him from his pants, he wrapped her legs around his waist and took her in one swift motion. “You feel so fucking good, woman,” he whispered in her ear, his voice as shaky as his hands from the level of restraint he was trying to exercise.

                “You too,” she whimpered through the mixed haze of pain and pleasure, rocking into him for more when she found his pace to be too slow to sate the need rushing through her. Kami, he was huge! In the back of her mind, she was grateful that Vegeta had paved the way the night before, or she would have had a hard time taking Casper. “Harder, please… need you now,” she begged. Usagi moaned when his mouth crashed into hers immediately and he surged into her roughly, his hands gripping her hips hard enough to bruise as he pounded into her with the savagery of a Saiyan warrior. “Coming,” she warned him, biting down on her lip to keep from crying out as she tightened around him and raked her nails over his shoulders. “Oh God…”

                Vegeta claimed her mouth once more to muffle her cry of ecstasy as he felt her clamp down on his length and stiffen in his arms. He purred with pleasure at the sensation, knowing that he finally had her again— hot, wet, and eager—even if she didn’t know it was him. It didn’t matter, he’d finally claimed the prize that he’d been yearning for since she’d walked out of his room that morning. “Come for me again, my goddess,” he whispered into her breasts as he began to lavish them with attention. He chuckled low in his throat when she let out the beginning of a yell as she came even harder, but he intervened with his hand.

                Usagi clamped down on it with her teeth and was sure she’d broken the skin, but before she could grunt an apology she was coming once more and biting down even harder to keep from screaming in rapture. “Please come for me,” she begged in his ear once she’d drifted back down to earth.

                Vegeta nodded and captured her mouth again, his tongue slowly dueling with hers as he let himself take his pleasure, his eyes rolling back as he moaned and clutched at her tightly. “I’ve been wanting to do that for so long,” he murmured into her hair. He knew how she would interpret it, but he meant that he’d been waiting to take her hard and aggressively, the way his beast had been urging him to during their first sexual encounter.

 And God, it had felt _great_.

                “I know you?” Usagi trembled a little when he gave a tiny nod. “You… you know who I am?” She relaxed against him when he shook his head and brushed his mouth over hers slowly, his teeth nipping briefly at her lower lip.

                “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” He whispered in her ear, unable to stop his hands from wandering over the perfect breasts he’d wanted to touch all day. “Kami, woman, you’re so damned beautiful. I’d take you again right now if we didn’t need to find a way out of here.”  He nearly did just that as she flicked her tongue out over his throat, followed by a gentle nip.

                “Maybe after?” She breathed softly, slipping a hand up his shirt to stroke his muscled torso. “I don’t know where we could go, but…”

                “Shh,” he said quickly, covering her mouth with his healing hand. Vegeta tamped down a laugh when she licked his palm playfully, and he listened intently at the sound of approaching footsteps. “Someone’s coming.”

                “And it’s not me,” she replied in his ear, and she practically heard him smile in reply. Usagi stayed silent, however, when her own ears picked up the approaching footsteps.

                Vegeta nipped at her throat and ran a hand down her back soothingly as he felt her tremble a little when the footsteps stopped outside the closet, but even he released a sigh of relief when they moved on. “We’ll wait a minute, and then we’ll get out of here,” he said under his breath.

                She nodded before whispering “Moon Crystal Power,” and within seconds she was fully dressed in her fuku once more. Vegeta was reminded to pull his bandana back up over his face, and thanked Kami he’d remembered to before they left the dark confines of the closet.

                After a few more minutes just to be safe, Vegeta took her by the hand and led the way, checking the corners before advancing to the stairwell and scooping her up. “Your boots are too noisy,” he told her so quietly that she barely heard him. He floated down silently and swiftly, and licked his lips in anticipation when he saw that the next level was full of Yakuza. “Your call.”

                Sailor Moon nodded and surveyed the situation; there were at least a dozen men waiting by the windows that they needed to access, and she knew that they were simply waiting for them and biding their time. There was no way out except for this floor, the ground floor, and the roof, and they likely had them all covered. “We’re fucked.”

                “Not as much as you’d think, goddess. Trust me?” He whispered into her hair. When she nodded, he led her back to the stairwell and pointed behind it. “Hide there and sit tight. No matter what you hear, just stay put. Trust me,” he told her, bending his head to kiss her briefly through the cloth over his mouth, “and I’ll take you somewhere in a few minutes so I can worship you properly.”

                “Are you ever going to let me watch you in action?” She asked coyly.

                “No. In fact, I plan on blindfolding you when the real action starts,” he snickered. “Woman, you haven’t even experienced all I’m capable of, yet.”

                “Come on,” she whispered. “Let me watch. Please,” she added. “I’m still curious about that first fight, and how you took all those men out so quickly. Please?” She repeated softly, giving him her softest big-eyed look.

                Vegeta hesitated a little before nodding and helping her to her feet once more. “Goddess… if you even think that my bandana might come off…”

                “Senshi’s honor,” Usagi chuckled, holding up her hand. “Swear it. I’ll close my eyes.”

                “Just don’t make a sound,” he muttered under his breath as he picked her up again to keep her boots from clicking on the tile. He set her down before peeking once more into the room, and motioned for her to get low. “And don’t get shot,” he hissed so softly that she barely heard him.

                “Yes, dear,” she whispered back. But he was gone by the time she uttered the second word, and she quickly peeked around the door just as the first scream of pain erupted from the room, followed by a hail of gunfire. She gaped in awe as bodies seemed to fall two and three at a time—when in fact they weren’t; he was simply moving around the room so fast that her eyes couldn’t keep up with the rate at which he was killing off the enemies. And throughout all of that, he was leading the gunmen and dodging their bullets, only popping fully back into view once… just to wink at her.

                “Show off,” she snorted when he leaned against the doorjamb and swung the door wide open, bowing flamboyantly to usher her into a room full of blood, smoke and death.

                “Your escape awaits, moon goddess. Feel like taking me with you?” He asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.

                “Only if you take me in return,” she whispered seriously, her wide blue eyes drinking him in. Something about all the blood on his arms, right down to his leather gloves, turned her on to no end.

                “Come here,” he replied hoarsely, and jerked her into his arms the moment she was within reach. Vegeta waited for her to close her eyes before he lifted his bandana slightly and kissed her fiercely, just as turned on by the heat of battle as she was. He pulled away when he could smell her arousal perfuming the air, and regarded her seriously. “You sure you want to come with me?”

                “In more ways than one,” she purred in reply, nipping at his lower lip. “You got a place in mind?”

                “Yes, actually.” With that, Vegeta scooped her up and used a small amount of ki to shatter the window they were facing.

                Sailor Moon held onto him tightly as they shot into the sky, closing her eyes against the wind in her face, and after only a few minutes at top speed she felt them touching down. She opened her eyes to find that they were in the middle of the woods, and her hero was carrying her into a small cabin. “So… what do I call my knight in shining armor?” She asked curiously, trying to focus on him in the dim lighting of the windowless hovel. “I take it you’re getting awfully tired of Cas,” she added with a chuckle.

                “Yes, I am. And **_just_** a lowly knight? Feh, woman. I _much_ prefer prince,” Vegeta chuckled, laying her down on the king-sized bed in the only room besides the kitchen.

                “Well then, my prince… I think it’s about time you claim the maiden rescued from yon office building.”

                “Maiden my ass,” he snorted, sliding on top of her to nuzzle her throat.

                “Pure as the driven fucking snow,” Usagi chuckled. “So, Highness, do I get to see your face?”

                “Not tonight. Can you see me?” He asked.

                Tempted to lie just so she could find out who he was, but unable to utter the falsehood, Usagi nodded slightly. “I can keep my eyes closed if you’d like.”

                “Trust me. Close your eyes just for now.” Vegeta took off his bandana and bloodied gloves once her eyes were shut and promptly covered them with his hand while lifting her head a little with the other. “Keep them shut,” he ordered firmly, removing the hand on her face to cover her eyes with his bandana and tie it tightly around her head. “There. Is that alright?”

                “Kinky,” she snickered, pulling him down for a kiss. Sailor Moon moaned softly as he immediately sought entry with his tongue and swept it over her own, and she arched into him as his hands began to wander over her slowly.

                “This thing regenerates, right?”

                Usagi nodded, then gasped when he suddenly tore her bodice right off. “In a hurry?”

                “To have you? Always,” he grunted. “And while I’m covered in the blood of my enemies? Gods, woman… I’m fighting every urge to fuck you until you can’t remember your own name.” Vegeta’s hands moved with a mind of their own as his beast began to take over, slowly stripping her of the remainder of her fuku one rip at a time while his mouth wandered the newly exposed skin.

                Usagi moaned when his mouth descended on the inside of her bare thigh and trailed up to her hip, nipping at the flesh before moving back down and giving her a slow lick. “I’d like to return the favor,” she whispered heatedly.

                Vegeta moaned at that and nodded into her warmth as he ran his tongue over her nub and gave it a gentle suck. Her reaction was immediate and all he could have hoped for; her legs went around his shoulders and she pushed off his ballcap to tangle her fingers in his hair as she arched into him for more and whimpered helplessly.  He continued to flick his tongue over her, using only feather-light pressure despite her soft pleas for more, and teased her entrance with his fingertips before finally giving in to her breathless request.

                Usagi moaned softly when his tongue finally moved a little harder, and as she felt herself begin to peak, she cried out when he latched on with his lips and suckled her with a growl of appreciation, sending her hurtling right over the edge with a loud cry of pleasure. She was still deep in the fog of her post-climatic bliss when she felt him slide up her body, and when she felt him pressing himself against her, hard and ready, she clutched at him. “Prince… return the favor…”

                “Later,” he breathed in her ear, slowly pressing forward to fill her. “I want you now, moon goddess.” Vegeta lost control of his beast when she drug his mouth down to hers, and he kissed her passionately as his hips surged forward, beginning a slow and delicious rhythm that had her sighing and arching into him.

                “Harder… I want all of you, Prince.”

                “No,” he replied hoarsely, surprising himself. “Want you like this… want to make you come… like this…”

                Usagi could only moan softly in response as he continued to thrust into her gently, rubbing a spot deep inside of her that had her slowly spiraling towards completion. She moaned his name as she climaxed, her pleasure washing over her like a soft light rather than the way it had in the closet, hard and intense. This was no less intense, but it was somehow _more_ than anything she’d ever felt with another lover.

                Vegeta felt it too, and resisted the urge to clamp down on her shoulder with his teeth when the Saiyan in him rose to the forefront, demanding that he claim this woman as his mate at once. No, damn it, he wouldn’t force that on her. Not when she didn’t even know _what_ he was, let alone _who_ he was. “Come for me again,” he groaned, his head tipping back a bit in rapture as he felt her tightening around him once more. “Gods, woman… feels so damned good…”

                “Come with me,” she whimpered, her nails digging into his lower back. Usagi could sense that he was close with the way he was swelling inside of her combined with the frequency of his moans and little growls of pleasure, and behind the part of her mind that was blank with burning passion, she was pleased that she could get such a reaction out of him.

                Vegeta merely nodded, breathing heavily as he felt himself closing in on his peak, and when she finally tightened around him once more he slammed into her, both of them crying out loudly at their mutual completion. “Damn,” he groaned, resting on top of her.

                “You ok?” Moon whispered, slowly running her fingers absently through his hair, pleased with the way it was making him sigh happily.

                “Mmhmm. Just… long time since…” Vegeta’s eyes fluttered shut as her fingers traveled to the nape of his neck and simply continued those slow delicious movements, and he found himself purring despite his efforts not to do so. “Since… this content…”

                “What is that?” Sailor Moon asked softly, moving a hand to his chest to better feel the vibration.

                “Can’t help it,” he grunted, “happens when I’m happy.” At least he could finally let that damnable purr out; he’d been resisting the urge to purr to his mate for over a week and it was soothing to finally let his beast take over a little.

                “Are you human?” She asked curiously. “It’s almost like a big cat’s in the bed with me.”

                “No, I’m not.” Vegeta sighed and shook his head. “I’ll tell you about it in time, moon goddess. “That’s a promise. Just not… definitely not tonight.”

                “It’s alright, Prince. Trust me, I understand. I’m not exactly ready to reveal who I am yet, either.”

###########################

                Pleased with her stealthy abilities, Usagi slipped back into the house unnoticed, and waited in the bathroom for ten minutes before she was positive that Vegeta wasn’t going to barge in and scream at her.

                Once she’d showered and dressed, she pulled out her Senshi laptop and grinned at the sight of lots and lots of phone numbers and a few addresses. She’d go through them all later; only one phone number was on her mind at the moment, and she called it from her superhero hotline the moment she located it.

                “Hello?” A deep male voice asked suspiciously.

                “Seriously, Sapphire? You’re surprised that I managed to eventually track you down?”

                “No,” he answered quietly. “And I know why you’re calling. The answer is no. He won’t be dissuaded from this… maybe yesterday… maybe there was a chance, but…”

                “But what?” Usagi snapped, fighting to keep from yelling into the mouthpiece of her phone. “What’s so different from yesterday!?”

                “You know damned well what’s different, Serenity. The rooftop. Were you _trying_ to send a message to him, or did it just happen!? And then the clothes in that closet and the smell of sex—“

                “Oh no,” Usagi groaned into the hand that had leapt to her mouth.

                “He’s pissed, Sere. Really pissed. Hell, I’m hiding in my lab right now just to stay away from him. I’ve… I’ve never seen him like this before. This jealous. He was jealous of Endymion, yes, but this Ghost guy…”

                “It was the first time,” Usagi said hurriedly. “And it just happened; there wasn’t really any thought to it. Look, Sapphire, wait until he’s calmed down, and then just ask him to leave me alone. I don’t want this to end bloody, and you know it will. I’m trying to give him a chance to just go away.”

                Sapphire sighed deeply before speaking. “You were always too kind, Sere. I’ll say something, but you know it likely won’t do any good. Diamond’s always been obsessed with you and nothing’s going to change that.”

                “I’m taken, Saph. That should be enough for him. I’m taken and I truly care for him. Just tell Diamond to leave me alone and wish me happy, and I’ll gladly do the same for him. Can’t we just coexist? I’m… I’m sick of all the fighting,” she sighed helplessly. “I just want it all to stop, Saph. I’m tired. Worn out. I need a break.”

                Diamond’s brother sighed as well. “I’ll tell him that. Maybe… maybe he’ll listen if he knows how much this is taxing you physically and emotionally. Maybe he’ll back off.”

                “Thank you, Saph. I’ll be in touch.” Usagi hung up then and flopped onto her bed, closing her eyes and immediately succumbing to her exhaustion, and the warm, satisfied feeling creeping through her body.

#####################

                Vegeta tried his best to ignore the blonde sitting at the kitchen table, pecking away at her laptop, but the fact that she had a candycane in her mouth and she was idly sucking it in and out of her mouth had him entranced, totally unable to look away.

                Sensing his eyes on her, Usagi turned her head, the piece of candy still rolling over her tongue, in and out. “What?” She snapped around it.

                Vegeta merely pointed at her mouth. “You’ve got a little right there,” he said with a sexy smirk.

                That was when Usagi realized that what she was doing could be easily construed as sexual, and she nearly choked on the candycane in her mouth before removing it and setting it aside. “Do you always have to be such an ass, Mr. Briefs?” She snorted as she turned back around.

                “Only when I’m imagining something else in your mouth,” he muttered, fixing himself a cup of coffee. “Fucking cocktease.”

                “HEY! You walked in on me in **_my_** domain, mister! It’s not like I sought you out in the training room and had the audacity to accuse you of being a tease just because you were in there all—all—all— **_sweaty and half-naked and sexy_**!” She yelled as she jumped to her feet.

                “Hn… so I’m _sexy_?”

                “GOD! You **_would_** focus on that part of it, wouldn’t you!?” Usagi opened her mouth to rant some more, but before a single word could leave her, he’d turned them, pressed her up against the counter, and he was kissing the living hell out of her.

                “You still talk too much, woman,” he mumbled when he pulled away, going right back to his coffee as if he hadn’t left her standing there, chest pounding, pulse racing, and blood burning from the contact. He could barely admit to himself that it’d had the same effect on him, as well. And damn it all to hell, he wanted _more_. He was seriously going to have to call her as Prince as soon as possible and set something up… hopefully she’d be agreeable to a little sexual rendezvous in the middle of her workday. Or better yet…

                Panting and breathless, Usagi simply stared up at him and shivered a little in reaction. Damn if the man couldn’t kiss; he could give lessons and make millions on it, too. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she whispered, pushing him out of the way to return to her work.

                Vegeta turned to face her, leaning against the counter, his coal eyes intense with thought. “I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did yesterday morning. It wasn’t my intention to upset you, Usagi.”

                The princess of the moon blinked in surprise at her computer screen and slowly turned her head to look at him. Had he just apologized!?

                “I have a tendency to overreact,” he continued before taking a sip of his coffee, “and I thought that I owed you an apology.” Vegeta waited nearly a full minute before sighing a little. “Still mad at me.”

                “No, not mad, it’s just that—“ Usagi was cut off by the door slamming open and Trunks stomping into the kitchen, shirtless, sweaty, and covered in bruises. “What the hell!?” She leapt out of her seat immediately, her boss forgotten, and began to examine the damage. “What happened, Trunks!?”

                “Feh, Goten fights fucking dirty, that’s all,” Trunks humphed, sounding very much like his old man as he grumbled and poured himself a cup of coffee.

                “No such thing,” Vegeta and Usagi said simultaneously, followed by the exchange of a smirk on his part and a blush on hers. “Here,” the princess added as she dug around in the freezer. She handed him a bag of frozen peas, followed by a bag of broccoli. “Put those on your lip and your eye, it’ll help with the swelling.”

                “Heh, thanks Usa-momma, but I should be fine. I’ve always been a quick healer. Care to spar with us if you’re not busy?” The billionaire playboy rolled his eyes when she politely refused and returned to her computer, but when he opened his mouth to protest, his father spoke up.

                “Actually, son… I need to have a word. Training room.”

                Son!? Trunks blinked and nodded, too surprised at what equated to a term of endearment from his father to even ask why he wanted to talk. The only thing Vegeta ever called him was “boy,” “brat,” and on occasion he called him by his name… but almost never “son.” He only got called that during very rare moments of his father showing him any sort of affection… or when someone had died.

                Vegeta waved him through the door and Trunks followed him to the gravity room, closing the door quietly behind him before leaning against it. “Father?” He asked seriously.

                “I was wrong,” he said softly. “When I said that what happened wasn’t your business. You’re my son… therefore me taking a mate _would_ in fact, be your business.” Vegeta was a little startled by Trunks’s radiant grin. “What?”

                “So… you and Usa-momma…?” He laughed and simply couldn’t wipe that grin off of his face for the life of him; just the thought of his father taking his surrogate mother as a mate…! It was so awesome!

                “Maybe,” his father grunted, followed by a heavy sigh as he slid down the wall to sit on the floor, resting his chin on his fist. “If she can forgive me for being an ass.”

                “Well… there are several different levels of ‘ass’ for you, Dad,” Trunks snickered before crossing the room to take a seat next to his old man. “Are we talking your normal everyday bullshit? Or is this something that’s going to require a major act of contrition?”

                “As I’m sure you’re well aware, Usagi and I had…” Vegeta smirked over at his son, who was already blushing like a teenager at the thought. “…unprofessional relations. And she wasn’t too happy about it the morning after. Some things were said and…” He frowned once more and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. “…feh. I’m sure you can fill in the blanks, boy.”

                “Just apologize, Dad,” Trunks sighed. “Tell her you were wrong and that you didn’t mean whatever it was that you said. She might not forgive you right away, but it’ll help smooth things over eventually. Be nice to her in the meantime… do little things to make her feel special.”

                “Ugh… you sound like your mother,” Vegeta grumbled. “Major acts of contrition it is, then.”

                The crown prince ventured back into the kitchen without a word, and the sight of his intended mate rubbing her eyes and squinting in the bright light made him freeze. “You’re about to have one of those migraines again, aren’t you, woman?”

                “I’ll be fine,” she snapped crankily as she went back to typing furiously. “I’m nearly done any—what the hell are you doing?”

                Vegeta smirked lightly as he continued the slow, careful motions over her neck and shoulders, followed by a chuckle leaving his mouth when she bent her head to give him better access. “That’s one way to shut you up, beautiful.”

                “Don’t call me that,” Usagi mumbled; despite her verbal complaint though, she was doing as one of his hands bid her, leaning forward and resting her face on her arms as he pushed her head down towards the table.

                “Hush,” Vegeta ordered softly, his fingers skillfully pressing and rubbing at the knots in her neck. “Just relax, Usa.”

                “This doesn’t mean that I forgive you, Vegeta,” she sighed, sounding more happy and content than anything else.

                “Not why I’m doing this, woman,” he replied simply. “I just don’t want you to be in any pain. Should I get your pills?” He added after a few more moments.

                “Iie, this is just fine, Vegeta. Arigato.” Usagi sighed with pleasure once more when she felt him pushing her hair to the side and out of the way for better access to her neck, while his other hand began to snake up the back of her shirt and massage her spine. “Don’t have to do this,” she mumbled when both of his hands began to work her lower back.

                “You complaining, woman?” Vegeta chuckled.

                “Hell no,” she whispered into her arms, “I just didn’t want you to—oh, right there… mmm… think you were obligated.”

                “Usa, you know me well enough to know that I _never_ do anything I don’t want to do. _Especially_ if I feel an obligation,” Vegeta snickered. “I’m more likely to avoid doing anything that people think I _should_ do.” When she didn’t reply except to mumble something in incoherent Japanese, Vegeta stopped, righted her shirt, and pulled her to her feet before scooping her into his arms. “Hush,” he ordered when her eyes opened in surprise and squinted against the light. “I’m taking you somewhere that won’t be as embarrassing if you doze off.”

                “Oh,” she sighed, resting her head against his bare chest. “Kay.” Lulled into a half-doze by his steady heartbeat, Usagi merely yawned and nodded when he laid her down on her bed and nudged her onto her stomach. She even helped him remove her shirt and didn’t protest when he unhooked her bra; if she had so much as a thought of doing so, the urge was squashed by the feeling of his ridiculously warm hands going right to her shoulders and gently massaging them. “Feels so good,” she slurred deliriously.

                “Good,” Vegeta replied pleasantly, fighting the urge to purr in contentment at the sight of her pleasure. Right then he wanted nothing more than to seduce the hell out of her with his hands before slowly coaxing her release from her, to see her lips parted as she sighed and moaned his name and writhed beneath him in ecstasy. But he couldn’t and wouldn’t do that. Not this time, anyway; this was about trust, and if he began a gentle seduction right then, he’d likely never get the opportunity to do it again in the future. _Baby steps,_ he grumbled mentally. “You know, woman… for the record? I wasn’t joking when you asked me why Bulma was so upbeat all the time.” He waited a moment, practically counting down from three in his mind, and right on cue she froze beneath him. _And she gets it. We have a winner!_ “Relax,” he snorted as he moved to her lower back.

                “I’m not having sex with you again, Vegeta,” Usagi ground through her teeth. “And if you think that’s what this is—“

                “No,” he said quickly, cutting her off. “I was merely putting an offer on the table, woman. For future consideration, if you will. Think of it as some sort of occasional, temporary merger between our two companies. Beneficial for both and no messy contracts.”

                “Don’t use business metaphors with me, Vegeta,” she snorted in annoyance.

                “Because you find it sexy when I do?” He chuckled knowingly. The chuckle became a soft laugh when she actually blushed and nodded slightly; well, at least she wasn’t going to deny it. “You don’t think that both our companies will flourish and thrive under such an arrangement?” He teased. “I recall both of us intensely enjoying such a merger the other night… I don’t see what harm it would do for us to repeat it.” Sure that she wasn’t looking, Vegeta began to text on the phone in his pocket, using only his sense of touch while his free hand continued to make her sigh and purr.

                “Mmm… need to get that,” Usagi whispered at the sound and feel of her superhero hotline vibrating in her front pocket. She practically groaned as well; she was already turned on by Vegeta’s words and the vibration against her thigh was _not_ helping matters. “Emergency phone.”

                The Prince of all Saiyans grunted and stopped long enough for her to retrieve the device and read the message, practically grinning as she immediately blushed and sighed. “It can wait,” he said simply, nudging her back down.

                “No, it can’t. Important emergency meeting,” she lied smoothly as she sat up. It was then that she realized she was completely exposed from the waist up and she flushed to her toes as she tried to right her bra.

                “Chill out, woman. I’ve got it,” Vegeta chuckled. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.” He hooked it for her and handed her the shirt she’d discarded before ducking his head in to brush his mouth over hers. “No expectations, Usa. But if you change your mind, you know where to find me. Have fun at your meeting,” he added with a smile as he left her room and closed her door behind him, followed by a rush of Saiyan speed to his own room to shower in less than two minutes and throw on The Ghost’s clothing.

                Usagi read over the message once more before huffing. “I’m turning into such a damned slut for both of these men,” she groaned.

                _Cant stp thnkng about u. Need u nw. Cabin. Plz come 2 me._

“And with me,” she added with a snicker. “I’m sure he thought it as he was sending it. Oh, fine. What the hell. Moon Crystal Power Make-Up.”


	12. Chapter 12

Vegeta strode into the cabin to find his quarry already dressed in street clothes with her glamour in place, and immediately scented her heavy arousal. “Hm… did I do that?”

                “A little of it, yes…” Usagi sighed and chewed at her lower lip while she fiddled with a lock of her hair. “Prince… I need to be honest. I didn’t want to turn you down without an explanation.”

                _Turn me down!?_ He couldn’t help but let his shock show in and around his eyes, his jaw hanging open behind the bandana. “But you came—I thought— _why_ are you turning me down? Was it something I did wrong, goddess?”

                “No!” Usagi said quickly, waving her hands in front of her to deny his statement. “It wasn’t you, Prince. It’s just… my boss…” She groaned and ran her hands over her face and through her hair in embarrassment and frustration. “Look, I originally came here with the intention of jumping you and fucking you senseless, but I thought about it while I waited. If we do this, Prince, I feel like I’ll just be _using_ you. My boss got me turned on right before you texted me,” she finally sighed. “And I refuse to sleep with him; it would simply be unprofessional, despite the fact that I _do_ like him. A little more than just _like_ ,” she added softly, followed by another groan. “Damn it, Prince, I’m making such a mess of things and I’m so confused!”

                Dear gods, he’d shot himself in the foot with this one, hadn’t he? _Kakarot would be laughing his ass off at this one,_ he mused, reflecting back to the gravity room that morning where Kakarot had confronted him about Usagi and had pretty much told him the same thing that Trunks had. “Moon, you haven’t made a mess of things.” Gods, if she only knew! “You’re attracted to two people at the same time, and that’s perfectly natural.” Well, for humans it was. But not for Saiyans. And she wasn’t attracted to two men, as he very well knew. Kami, **_if she only knew_**! But **_if_** she knew… she’d kick his ass. Or at least try to. “I’m not upset about it, Moon… just know that I don’t think you’re using me at all. But it’s your decision,” he added quickly when she opened her mouth to speak.

                “Thanks,” she sighed heavily.

                “May I?” He asked politely as he crossed over to the bed. Vegeta sat when she scooted over a little and nodded, and he wrapped an arm around her waist without even thinking about it. “So. What are our plans for tonight, moon goddess? More pain and slaughter? Or maybe some more closet time?” He added with a chuckle and a waggle of his eyebrows.

                “Hentai,” she snorted, unable to suppress a giggle. “By the way, these came this morning.” Usagi dug in her subspace for a moment and finally handed him the photo he’d requested, blushing at the hint of desire in his eyes as he looked at it.

                “It actually does us justice,” he rumbled, raking his gaze over the sight of them entwined on the Yakuza rooftop in the dark, her face just visible enough to see it flushed with pleasure as their mouths were locked in a passionate kiss.

                “There were a couple more at different angles, but I thought that one came out the best. The note that was with the photos was _not_ pleased… and I think that perverted bastard kept my panties,” she added with a growl. “He’s probably sniffing them right now and whacking off all over them. Fucking pervert.” 

                “Heh. If he gets a pair, do I get one, too?”

                “Ugh.” Usagi rolled her eyes and flopped onto her back, her hair spilling around her like a curtain as she stared at the ceiling.

                “I can smell how sexually frustrated you are, goddess. Are you sure you don’t want me to take care of it for you?” Vegeta’s eyes smiled at her when she just huffed at him and shook her head. “Maybe you should go jump your boss, then. Either way, you’re getting what you need, woman.” _And I will be, too._

Usagi smirked as an idea occurred to her; she still had that nasty negligee she’d planned on using with Vegeta as Sailor Moon, and she did owe him one hell of a thank you for saving her ass so many times. She couldn’t have him as Usagi… but as the heroine of love and justice, she could have her beefcake and eat it too. “Ugh… I’ll think about it. I might just break down and call you back in a few hours when I can’t take it anymore,” she admitted with a whine.

                “Whichever you prefer, moon goddess,” Prince replied with a grin. “I have two hands, I can take care of my own needs. I just prefer to have help.”

               

                ##########################

                “Whaaaaaa?” Usagi groaned into her superhero hotline as she tugged her pillow over her head, followed by a long yawn.

                “My brother wants to propose a truce. Sorry if I caught you at a bad time, Majesty.”

                If Usagi had been sleeping in a bunk bed, she would have hit her head on the top piece as a result of how quickly she shot up in reaction. “Saph?”

                “Yeah. He’s had some time to cool off, Serenity… he’d like you to come and discuss the terms of a ceasefire.”

                “Terms? Hell. Just leave me the fuck alone. Those are my terms, Saph. They’re pretty fucking easy to understand.” Usagi went ahead and started hunting for clothes, though; she wanted to be ready to teleport immediately if necessary.

                “Diamond refuses to give up his hold over the Yakuza and wants you to leave his men alone.”

                “Feh, you know better than that, Sapphire. If they’re committing crimes, I’ll be on them like white on rice.”

                “Hence the need for a meeting, Sere.” Sapphire sighed, and Usagi could practically see him rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration through the phone. She suspected that Diamond was sitting there giving his brother instructions and annoying the hell out of him at the same time. “It’s nearly dark. When can we expect you?”

                “In a few. Let me get ready and I’ll teleport. No guards, no guns, or I peace out as quickly as I came in. Understood?”

                “Consider it done, so long as you come alone. We’ll do the same; it will be just my brother… and myself as a mediator,” he said, the last part added with a frustrated sigh.

                Usagi hung up and considered informing Prince of her whereabouts, but decided against it. He’d insist on coming with her, or at least on taking Piccolo with her. But she hadn’t seen Piccolo in two days and was loathe to track him down and bother him. It was obvious that he had a major yen for the former Senshi of Jupiter, and the last thing Usagi wanted to do was interfere with his attraction to her, especially when it was clear that he was having a difficult time accepting his own pull towards the other princess. “Which is good, since I have no clue how to reverse what the crystal did to him,” she giggled. “Poor guy.”

                She threw on some slippers and decided against changing; she was just too tired and frustrated from the lack of sexual release she’d desired throughout the day. “Maybe I should have called Prince back to the cabin,” she   sighed. “It’s not like I’ll ever grow the balls to jump Vegeta as Sailor Moon. Pity,” she added softly, “I’d been looking forward to ambushing him in that lingerie.”

                “Moon Crystal Power,” she mumbled tiredly. “Aaaand, Sailor Teleport,” she added with a total lack of fanfare.

                Sapphire greeted her with a tiny, knowing smile when she appeared on the rooftop. “Burning the candle at both ends?” He asked knowingly.

                “Work,” she replied, rubbing at her eyes. “And on top of it, it was a _very_ long day, so let’s just make this quick. If it’d been anything less than a truce negotiation, I would have told you to shut up and I would have went back to sleep.”

                Sapphire led her to the door and held it open for her before leading her down the stairs towards the office portion of the building, and stopped and turned when he heard her boots stop clicking. “What’s wrong?”

                Moon tipped her head towards a door. “I can hear people in there, Saph. I’m not stupid, you know.”

                “They work for Diamond, yes, but they’re not aware of this meeting. They’re merely working on some other stuff for the syndicate. No worries, Serenity, you have my word. Would you like some coffee?” He added when she followed him hesitantly.

                Knowing that Sapphire would never break his word with her, Usagi tried to relax as she tailed him closely. “Sure, coffee would be most welcome.” She let him take her into a cozy-looking office; apparently it was made to relax in as well as do paperwork, judging by the lit fireplace and the plush couches sitting adjacent from the solid wooden desk. “Not bad.”

                “Thank you,” Sapphire replied with genuine pleasure. “It’s mine, I decorated it myself.”

                “I’m mentally taking notes,” Usagi admitted with a tiny smile, “though I doubt my boss would appreciate me remodeling my office; I’d have to knock out a wall and use the spare room for this little den thing you’ve got set up.”

                “Do you enjoy working for CapsuleCorp? I’ve heard that the boss man there can be a real hardass,” Sapphire asked conversationally as he handed her a mug and sat down across from her on a plush couch.

                “You have no clue,” Usagi chuckled, and she quickly related the day she was fired and how quickly Vegeta had rehired her when he’d realized everything she did around the house for him.

                “I’ll bet that was a blow to his pride,” Sapphire snorted.

                “Probably. He’s not so bad, though, once you get to know him. He’s just very set in his ways. He’s a good man when you get right down to the core. Most people just get their teeth punched in on their way to the core,” she added with amusement.

                “And have you fucked him too?” A low voice drawled from the doorway.

                 Sailor Moon turned her head and glared at Diamond, half-tempted to chuck her coffee mug at his head. But it was good coffee and it would be a damn shame to waste it on the likes of him. “Seeing as how that’s _none_ of your business, Diamond—“

                “Answer the question, Sere.”

                “Brother, we discussed this!” Sapphire snapped. “No confrontations of any kind! We’re here to negotiate peace, not start another feud! I’m tired of all the fighting!”

                _Wow, Sapphire grew some balls,_ Usagi mused silently. “And so am I,” she remarked aloud. “Now, do we sit down and talk like adults, Diamond? Or do I teleport out and go back to sleep? I’m exhausted and I’m already feeling the beginnings of a migraine. I want my meds and my bed.”

                Keeping his eyes locked with hers, Diamond crossed the room and plopped down gracefully next to his little brother and removed his black crystal earrings, the source of most of his power. “A show of good faith,” he muttered, setting them on the coffee table.

                “You know I can’t do the same. The silver crystal is integrated with every cell in my body, now. It can’t be removed, Diamond.”

                “I’m sure my brother would settle for you simply detransforming, Serenity,” Sapphire interjected the moment he saw his brother about to make a nasty comment. “Please,” he added gently.

                Usagi immediately blushed and looked at her boots. “I… um… I’m kinda not wearing much,” she mumbled in embarrassment.

                “Always an excuse, Serenity,” Diamond snorted.

                “HEY! **You** woke **me** up, not the other way around! You should _expect_ that I’d only be wearing some flimsy little nightgown and my slippers!” She snapped. In an instant she detransformed, and she sputtered into her coffee cup as Diamond quickly shut his mouth and slowly ate her up with his eyes. “See!? And now you’re going to be giving me the pervy eye the whole time I’m here. Just _wonderful_. Now I’m just glad I don’t sleep naked every night.”

                “Well, if you wanted to shut me up, Sere, that is certainly something that would render me speechless,” Diamond said with what he thought was a come-hither smile. To Usagi it just looked and felt creepy.

                “Let’s just get on with it,” she huffed impatiently, already so self-conscious about her state of dress that she needed a change of subject. “What are you terms for a peace agreement?”

                “You leave us alone, we leave you alone,” Sapphire said, grateful that they’d gotten to the point. Even he was about to slap the rude, lustful glare off his brother’s face. “That includes the Yakuza in the city. Do what you want to the Triads. Hell, we’ll even help you in that respect.”

                “Taking out the crime in South City is not negotiable for me,” Usagi replied flatly. “Innocent people are getting caught up in drivebys every day, including women and children. As long as that’s going on, and as long as drugs and weapons are being sold to little kids, you can count on me taking out the root of the problem. And that’s the gangs. All of them.”

                “Any solution to this, Diamond?” Sapphire asked.

                Diamond thought about it for a moment and finally smiled. “I’ll make a deal with you, Sere. You give me one night with you and we’ll simply change cities. Hell, I’d be willing to change countries if you’d just—“

                “Not a _chance_ ,” Usagi snapped. “I’m tired, I’m cranky, and discussing potential access to my goods is only making the second part of that worse. So unless you have a better idea in mind that _doesn’t_ involve me sleeping with your pathetic ass—“

                “Oh!? Like you slept with that masked asshole in this very building!?”

                Sapphire jumped between them when both parties leapt to their feet, and he quickly pushed them back into their seats. “Whoa! I think we need to take a break, both of you. This is going nowhere in a hurry.” He waited for them both to nod before sighing in relief. “Diamond, since Serenity is underdressed, would you do the gentlemanly thing and vacate to allow you both some space?”

                “Of course,” he snorted, scooping up his earrings as he left.

                “Thank you,” Usagi whispered, sagging into the cushions of the sofa she was sitting on. “I was about to transform and flatten him.”

                “Trust me, I could sense it,” Sapphire sighed, taking his seat as well. “I’m sorry, for the record. Diamond is unbelievably jealous about the whole Ghost thing. And Serenity… I would appreciate it if you answered his question, at least for me. While he’s not here, anyway. I want to know what I’m dealing with, here.”

                Usagi frowned; it was no one’s business but hers whom she slept with, but Sapphire did have the right to know so he wouldn’t be blindsided by anything that could set his obsessed brother off. “Yes,” she finally answered. “It was a onetime mistake, though,” she added with a blush. “And for the record, Saph, he’s the only man besides Prince that I’ve been with since Mamoru,” she grumbled. “Considering how many conquests Venus or Jupiter would have had by now, I’m a virgin.”

                “Yes, but my brother isn’t obsessed with them, Sere. He’s obsessed with _you_. And I’m sure you’re aware of how he can be when he doesn’t get what he wants… or when another man _does_ get what—or who—he wants.”

                “Well, Saph, your brother is one giant spoiled child and he needs to _grow up_ and get the fuck over himself.”

                Sapphire nodded and set his empty mug down. “I’m not blind to his faults, Sere. But he is the leader of our people—what’s left of them—and I will follow him until the end. You know how deeply I love my brother.”

                “I know,” Usagi replied sympathetically, “and I thank you for tolerating both of our tempers. I know how my own can get out of hand… especially when Diamond’s in the room. Tell you what? I’ll go home, get some rest, and we can set this meeting up for tomorrow night or something. I’m tired and cranky and not in a negotiating mood. Right now I’m in an ass-kicking take-no-prisoners mood. Kay?”

                After a moment of thought Sapphire finally agreed, but when he led her to the door, he frowned at the sight of a dozen armed guards… and his brother standing just behind them. “Diamond… this is _not_ what was agreed upon,” he whispered with a hint of fear for Usagi in his voice.

                “If I can’t have her, no one can,” he replied coldly. Diamond raised his hand the moment Sapphire moved to slam and lock the office door, throwing his brother into the nearest wall.

                “Transform and get out,” Sapphire ordered hoarsely as he began to black out. “I—sorry—“

                “MOON CRYSTAL POWER MAKE-UP!” Usagi screamed rapidly just as a hail of bullets filled the room. She cried out in pain as they cut her down in less than a second, but before she would let herself give in to unconsciousness she spit on Diamond’s shoe and grimaced up at him, her teeth red with blood from her internal wounds. “Fuck you… asshole… Sailor… Teleport…” she croaked.

####################

                Trunks was the first into the medlab after hearing the loud crash, and even in the dark his Saiyan eyes noted the golden tiara lying among a pile of glass on the floor in front of the small window. He caught sight of the pale, bloody hand hanging just inside of it next, and moved with his superior speed to tug on the equally bloody arm that it was attached to. “FATHER!”

                He needn’t have yelled; Vegeta was already right behind him, having only taken a few seconds longer in order to put some pants on before investigating the sound. “Pull her through,” he ordered urgently, catching the blood-soaked woman as she fell through the opening. “Go get me a senzu, son,” he added just as quickly as he carried his cargo to a narrow hospital bed. “Come on, moon woman. Wake up,” he whispered, lightly slapping her cheeks. “Don’t do this to me, _r’sha_ ,” he urged. “ ** _Wake. Up_**.”

                “Out of senzu,” Trunks said as he darted back into the room at full speed. “Shock her with your ki, Dad.”

                “Just did,” he grunted as he gave her a second jolt with no reaction from the heroine. “Call Kakarot.”

                Trunks just blinked and stared at his father like he’d grown an extra head. “You want to actually ask Goku for help!? YOU!?”

                “ _Do it, boy_!” Vegeta barked, his eyes flashing green from the level of his worry and terror. “I’m losing her, damn it, so just call Kakarot and do it **_now_**!” When Trunks just blinked at him once more in shock, Vegeta began flaring his ki wildly, ascending in order to get his only friend’s attention. He wasn’t surprised when Kakarot showed up naked and fairly aroused, either. “Senzu, Kakarot!”

                “On it,” Goku replied without hesitation, immediately ITing right back out.

                Vegeta caught the senzu the moment the taller Saiyan returned and instantly placed it in Sailor Moon’s mouth, urging her gently to chew it. “Please,” he breathed into her crimson hair, “please, _r’sha_. Come back to me.”

                “Power down, Vegeta,” Goku advised as he tugged on a pair of pants he’d teleported back out to grab, along with delivering a quick apology to his mate. “You don’t want her catching you at Super Saiyan just yet.”

                The prince quickly did as he was told just in time; his moon goddess’s eyes opened the moment his hair and eyes melted back into ebony, and he gazed down at her with deep concern and just a hint of love. “ _R’sha_.”

                “Sorry,” she whispered tearfully. She sighed heavily and instinctively leaned into the hand cupping her blood-and-tear-streaked face, noting somewhere in the back of her mind how tightly he was holding her to him with his other arm. “Replace the window,” she added apologetically. “Had to throw my tiara.”

                “ _R’sha_ … I’m not worried about that stupid fucking window,” Vegeta growled. “You almost fucking _died_. What happened to that Ghost friend of yours?”

                “Didn’t call him,” she admitted hoarsely; her throat was still healing from the bullet that had grazed her windpipe, but at least she could breathe a little easier. “Peace talks… ambushed.”

                _No fucking shit she didn’t call me,_ Vegeta snarled mentally as he hefted her more securely into his arms and carried her towards the door. “Son? Kakarot?”

                “I’ll get the mess, Dad.”

                “Just take care of her, Vegeta. I’ll head home for now… but call me if you need anything.”

                “Thank you, both of you.” Hushing his cargo whenever she tried to speak, Vegeta carried her straight to his own room and proceeded to strip her of her already shredded fuku while the tub filled with hot water. “Shut up and hold still, Moon,” he instructed, his tone infinitely more gentle than his words. “Let me just take care of you, damn it. You scared the shit out of me; you owe me this much.”

Her wounds were still healing, and Vegeta listened to the plops as the bullets that were still lodged in her body fell into the water as they were forced out. She was obviously trying not to cry from the pain, and he commended her for it silently. “Let’s get the blood out of your hair,” he suggested as he slipped off his pants and climbed into the water behind her. “Hold still,” he admonished when she squirmed. “I’m not going to do anything, moon woman. Shit, give me more credit than to take a still-bleeding wounded woman when she’s only half-conscious.”

“Sorry,” she whispered hoarsely, “you’re just… very naked…”

“Not like you haven’t seen a naked man, woman,” he chuckled as he undid her odangos. _Not like you haven’t seen… or **felt** … me naked, _he added mentally, already gently soaping her scalp. “Besides, I was covered in blood from you, too. I would have needed a bath anyway. Relax,” he whispered tenderly. “I’d never hurt you, _r’sha._ ”

The fact that he was flaccid against her lower back decided her—not that she could have gotten up and escaped, anyway. Sailor Moon let herself melt into him as he washed her slowly and carefully, and when he finally told her it was time to rinse she trustingly let him cradle her in his arms and tip her head back into the water. “Thank you,” she whispered when he began soaping his own hair. “Would you like some help with that?”

“No, you rest,” he replied softly. “Your strength should be returning soon from the senzu… whatever happened to all the beans I gave you, anyway? You couldn’t have possibly used them all.”

Usagi blushed and shook her head slightly. “I was too weak to access my subspace,” she admitted in embarrassment. “That’s never happened before.” She turned an even brighter shade of red when his eyes hardened and he glared at her. “I shouldn’t have gone in alone, it was stupid and I’m sorry,” she said hurriedly. “I should have at least suspected that he would flip out on me and do something crazy. At least I know his brother had nothing to do with it and can still be trusted,” she muttered aloud. “I won’t go into detail, but I should have been more careful.”

She let him lead her out of the tub then, but when she moved to take the towel in his hand she was momentarily stunned to feel her bare body pulled flush to his and his lips pressing against hers. “Vegeta… I…”

“Sorry,” he breathed, brushing his mouth over hers once more before releasing her. He handed her the towel and retrieved one for himself, wrapping it around his waist as soon as he was dry. “Come on, _r’sha_ , you can share my bed for the night. You need to rest.”

“Thank you, Vegeta, but I can’t. I need to get home… I’ll be missed at work in the morning as well if I oversleep.”

“Ah, the asshole boss,” he chuckled as he pulled on a pair of shorts. “Want me to take him out?” He teased.

Usagi giggled and shook her head; if only Vegeta knew that he was offering to off himself, just as Prince had offered to do as well! That second part only made her laugh harder. “No—no, but thanks!” She cackled, secretly very grateful that he was trying to lighten the mood, to wash away the memory of how terrified she’d been when she’d realized that she was dying.

Knowing exactly why it was so funny, Vegeta grinned and shrugged. “You can’t blame me for trying to get you to stay the night, Moon. Even if nothing happens, I’ve daydreamed about having you in my bed for quite some time.”

That statement stopped her laughter and she blushed to her toes. “Maybe… maybe one—I’ll think about it,” she finally managed.

“I can live with that,” he purred, crossing back over to pull her into his arms and draw in her scent. “Feels so good just to hold you,” he whispered into her hair.

“I wouldn’t complain about giving my hero a kiss for his trouble,” Usagi replied softly. No sooner had the words left her mouth, Vegeta was kissing her passionately, tangling his tongue with hers as his inner beast began to take over and guide them towards the bed.

He groaned when he felt her ease back after a full minute. “Want you, Moon,” he whispered hoarsely. “Please let me have you… just one night.”

“I’ll think about it… that’s the best answer I can give you right now, Vegeta. I’m sorry… I know you deserve it after—“

“Don’t do it because you think I deserve it,” he grumbled, trying his best not to snap at her. “Do it because you want me, too.”

Usagi could only nod, and she kissed him briefly before pulling herself out of his arms. “I’ll think about it,” she repeated before teleporting to her own bathroom.

######################

Trunks sighed with relief when he felt his father’s ki on the stairwell behind him and he turned his lavender head to regard him seriously. “Usa-momma’s Sailor Moon, isn’t she? And don’t lie to me, Father.”

Vegeta huffed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sat on the stair he’d been descending. “Yeah,” he finally sighed heavily. “I’m actually glad you figured it out, son. Now I don’t have to lie anymore… but…”

“How did I know?” Trunks finished for him. “You’re Saiyan, Dad. You can’t be in love with two women at the same time. You told me you wanted Usagi as your mate, and then you called Sailor Moon ‘beloved’ in Saiyan down in the medlab.”

Vegeta lightly smacked himself in the forehead for his carelessness before nodding. “Now you know why I get so fucking mad at her sometimes.”

“Especially for sneaking out…” Trunks growled under his breath at the idea of her sneaking out nearly every night and practically getting killed just as often. “That’s why you told her to take Piccolo… but Piccolo’s been gone for like, going on three days.”

“She hasn’t been alone. Other than tonight, she’s had The Ghost with her,” Vegeta replied easily.

“And just how would you know that for a fa—“ Trunks groaned at the tiny smirk on his father’s face, an expression he was all too familiar with. “You’re The Ghost,” he snorted. “Why am I not surprised?”

“She needed protection. That was the only way I could provide it without her flipping the fuck out on me. Maybe you and Kakarot’s brat could—“

“Nope. I’d do it, but she’d recognize me in a heartbeat. And Goten’s been missing on and off for a few days, same as Piccolo. And he won’t breathe a word about whatever it is that he’s doing. He said that Piccolo swore him to secrecy… but honestly? I think he’s found a girl.” Trunks grinned at that and shook his head. “I can’t imagine Goten settling down.”

“Or you,” Vegeta snickered. “Have you seen that little hellcat of a quarter-Saiyan since she turned sixteen?”

“Videl and Gohan have been keeping her under lock and key,” Trunks replied, more than frustrated by the whole thing. “I was going to have her sweet Uncle Goten sneak her out so she could be courted by devilish old me, but like I said, Goten’s been scarce. I’ll get her out in the open, though.”

“Just be patient,” Vegeta suggested. “You’re young, you have plenty of time ahead of you to win her over… or more importantly, her parents. I’ve already spoken with Kakarot on your behalf, since he’s the head of his Saiyan House—“

“It’s not done that way here, Father. You know that.”

“I know that, brat,” Vegeta snorted in amusement. “Your old man’s not a total retard, you know. But just because Kakarot’s brat is the head of his own house in human culture doesn’t mean that Kakarot doesn’t have some sort of influence over him. He approves the match… as do I. But you knew that.”

“Thank you, Father. I appreciate the support. But… Goku really approves? He knows my history with women.”

“I assured him it wouldn’t be a problem…” Vegeta grinned at that and chuckled in amusement. “…and he assured me that he’d break your fucking legs if you hurt his granddaughter in any way, shape or form. So you’d best tread lightly, boy.”


	13. Chapter 13

Vegeta didn’t even flinch from his meditation when he felt Goku’s ki beside him. “I hope your mate isn’t pissed as hell about last night, Kakarot.”

                “Nah. She was at first, but I explained what had happened and she’s cool.” Goku grinned and shook his head slowly. “Well, she was cool _after_ I threw her down and got her off so many times that it more than made up for my sudden departure… hm… Vegeta? I’ve been wondering something for years…”

                “Dear Kami…” Vegeta muttered. He knew what was coming, he’d been waiting on this question for as long as he could remember, and he was amazed that Kakarot was only asking just now.

                “Why do I get so aggressive with Chi-Chi sometimes? It never happened when we first got married, but then years and years later—“

                “Because you’re Saiyan,” Vegeta said with a wave of his hand, effectively cutting him off. “We’re aggressive by nature, but because you hit your head as a brat it’s only started to surface over the last couple decades. Part of it is because of my presence.”

                “Huh? Why you?” Goku chuckled. “Not that you’re not sexy as hell, Vegeta, but you don’t exactly get me in an aggressive mating mood.” The taller Saiyan grinned when the prince just stared at him, but when he winked at Vegeta they both erupted into laughter.

                “Dear gods, I wish the women had been here for that!” He cackled. “As many snide jokes as I’ve had to endure about you and I possibly having a relationship!”

                “Hahaha! I know! Chi-Chi’s always telling me to marry you whenever I pop out to spar! And then there was that one time we were gone for days, beating the shit out of each other, and she actually accused me of cheating on her with you! Oh dear Kami, the look on her face when I…” Goku giggled at that and shook his head.

                “Dear gods… do I _want_ to know what you said to your mate?”

                Goku grinned and waggled his eyebrows at that. “I said that I’ve seen you taking a piss plenty of times, and that there was no way in hell that that monster of yours was going _anywhere_ near my asshole.”

                “ ** _Good answer_**.” Then his eyes narrowed and he stared hard at the younger man. “Wait a fucking minute. You looked at my junk, Kakarot? I thought that was against the bathroom code.”

                “Vegeta, it’s not exactly easy to miss when the guy next to you whips out a dick the size of Mount Paozu. It was like looking at the sun. I glanced really quick, then I looked away before I went blind.”

                “Yet again, Kakarot… damned fine answer,” Vegeta chuckled.

                “Puffed up your pride enough for one day?”

                “Yes, Kakarot, I think that’ll be all for today,” he replied regally.

                ##############################

                It had been an uneventful day and Usagi had played least-in-sight, obviously still recovering from the night before even though she claimed to be suffering from a bit of a cold. She came out only to make Vegeta’s coffee and grab her computer from the sitting room, but other than that she’d stay shut in her room.

                But as the day wore into night, she couldn’t help but think of Vegeta. He wanted Sailor Moon. He was clearly in love with her. And he deserved more than anything to… hell, he’d even said it himself. Just one night, right?

                She nodded slowly to herself as she came to a decision and began to change clothes; this she could do for him… and for herself. Because she’d be lying through her teeth if she tried to say that she didn’t want him, too.

##########################

“Merry Christmas, Vegeta.”

                Vegeta’s eyes snapped open at the sound of those words being breathed in his ear, and Sailor Moon found herself pinned down roughly on his bed while he growled down at her. She simply smirked up at him and waited patiently for several seconds until she felt him gradually relax and he huffed down at her with a roll of his eyes. “You’ve got a lot of balls, moon woman.”

                “For waking you? Or for sneaking into your room in the middle of the night? Or is it because I managed to get this close without alerting and waking you?” She teased lightly.

                “All three,” he grunted as he released her wrists and legs and knelt there on the bed. It was his turn to smirk when her eyes drifted south and she slightly colored at the sight of him totally nude. “Like what you see, moon woman?”

                “I’d be lying through my teeth if I said no,” she whispered in reply, suddenly serious. Unable to stop herself, her hand drifted out to whisper down his chest, but her gloved fingers fell away before she went too far down. “Not that you need the ego boost, but…” Moon licked her lips in anticipation as she slowly sat up to kneel in from of him. “…you’re very beautiful, Vegeta.”

                The prince didn’t have words for that; he’d never been called ‘beautiful’ by anyone before, and he had to admit that he was a little touched by the compliment. “So… what brings you, moon woman? You don’t look injured.”

                At that, she smiled softly and dared to touch him again, resting her hand on his chest. “I brought you your Christmas present. It’s early, yes… but I thought it was something you could use. It’s… _definitely_ something you deserve.”

                Was she implying what he thought she was? No, she couldn’t possibly be… not after all the times she’d refused him as Usagi… right? Or was she having a ‘fuck it’ moment and finally giving in to her desire for him? Since she didn’t know he knew who she was, it made sense. She could let him have her as Sailor Moon, and still try to maintain some distance as Usagi. “Actually, I have something for you, too,” he said flatly, careful not to give away the wash of emotions running through him.

                She cocked her head at that. “Oh?” Usagi sat back on her heels when he climbed out of the bed, and she couldn’t help but appreciate the sight of his perfect, bare ass when he turned to dig in his dresser. She looked in the bag he handed her and grinned. “I’d say this is too much, but it’s actually very appreciated,” she chuckled, tucking it away in her subspace. She also removed her disguise pen as she put away the fat sack of senzu beans, and gave it a quick order in Japanese.

                Vegeta’s mouth hung open slightly when the object of his desire was engulfed in a brief flash of light, and her fuku was replaced with a barely-there black lace teddy, complete with thigh-highs and garters, while her hair came undone and pooled around her on the bed. “And this is my gift…?” He asked slowly. The prince licked his lips when she nodded, her blue eyes large in the moonlight that spilled into his room. “Just to look at… or may I touch?”

                “Well, it’d be a shame to leave your gift unwrapped, Vegeta,” Usagi whispered softly as she inched towards him on all fours, smirking up at him despite her nervousness. She was a little surprised when he didn’t pounce on her as she’d expected, and when she reached him and pressed against him, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. “Vegeta… you don’t want me?”

                Kami, was she nuts!? Couldn’t she feel the raging erection he had just from _looking_ at her perfection!? Vegeta’s eyes grew impossibly darker as his beast rose up and snapped at the leash insistently; Usagi or Sailor Moon, it didn’t matter, this woman was definitely his mate, and he wanted nothing more than to pin her down, ravage her to the point of exhaustion and bite her shoulder to stake his claim. “Oh… I want you, Moon. You have no earthly idea just how _badly_ I want you.”

                Emboldened by his words, she leaned in and flicked her tongue over the edge of his ear. “Then take me,” she breathed.

                Vegeta’s beast was fully unleashed then, and Usagi found herself thrown down onto her back, hardly able to breathe as his mouth crashed into hers and ruthlessly claimed it as his own. He echoed her loud moan of desire as he began to pull at the sheer cloth keeping him from his prize, and like a little kid on Christmas, he finally just shredded the wrapping around his present, throwing it every which way until he had her bare and panting breathlessly beneath him.

                But as he moved to thrust into her, he suddenly found himself flipped and their positions reversed, and he growled when she pinned his arms to the bed and smiled down at him. “Want you _now_ , woman,” he snarled, caught between wanting to keep his identity as The Ghost a secret and wanting to power up to Super Saiyan so he could throw her back down and claim her hard and fast.

                “And you’ll have me, Vegeta,” Sailor Moon promised softly. “But since I know you’ve been waiting for me so patiently, I thought I’d let you savor it a little. Stay put,” she added with a seductive whisper as she began to lightly trail her mouth down his chest. She felt him tense when she began to tease him at first, but when she sensed that he was about to take over and just fuck her to within an inch of her life, she ran her tongue over his arousal and was rewarded with a low moan from the Saiyan prince. “Do you like that, Vegeta?”

                “Moon woman, if you don’t—gods, beloved, don’t stop,” he growled softly in Saiyan when her lips closed over the head and began to gently suck. “Want you,” he purred, the onslaught of sensation breaking him back to his native language. “Be mine, woman…” He thrust up a little when she took as much of him as her small mouth would allow, his hands bunching in her hair as sweet little waves of pleasure began to course through him, escalating as they signaled his impending climax. “Let me have you, beloved… I want you for my mate.”

                Usagi couldn’t understand a single word coming out of his mouth, but she took a great deal of satisfaction in the fact that she was effecting him so much, making it impossible for him to even speak in English or Japanese, and she briefly wondered what that sexy, guttural language even was. Then she felt him shudder a little, but when he groaned and shook his head, she gripped his hips and moved faster to signal her willingness to take him all the way.

                Vegeta practically whimpered as he exploded into her mouth, and when she continued to move to ride out his orgasm and lick him clean, he growled with renewed need as his beast totally overrode even the smallest intention he’d had in taking her at anything less than full force. “You’re in for a pounding,” he warned her softly.

                “Looking forward to it,” she whispered as she slid back up to run a line of kisses up his throat, making his head tip back a little in perfect trust. “But if you’d prefer to let me continue, I swear you’ll enjoy it, Vegeta.”

                “I’ll enjoy it either way,” he purred as he pulled her hips down and pressed into her folds. “And I’ll be sure to make you enjoy it, too, moon woman.” Vegeta moaned as she slid down him slowly, the sight of her eyes fluttering shut with pleasure turning him on to no end. And before she could even move he was flexing his hips and thrusting into her, slowly at first as he reveled in her soft cries of delight. “No,” he grunted when she began to move in time with him almost immediately. “Let me do this, Moon.”

                Her eyes growing smoky as she edged closer to oblivion, Usagi nodded and let him hold her hips in place as he continued to make love to her from below, his face tense with concentration. “I’m yours to do with as you will, Vegeta. At least for tonight,” she whispered, her head tipping back slightly as she panted and tried not to fall over from the sudden increase in pleasure as he moved a little harder. “Feels so good, Vegeta… don’t stop… I’m—I’m about to—“                    

                With a little smirk, Vegeta slammed into her suddenly, gracefully reversing their positions without missing a single beat in the rhythm, and growled in approval at her loud cry of his name as she climaxed and clutched at him tightly. “That’s it, woman. And we’re not even close to being through, either,” he promised, bending his mouth to her shoulder to lick and nuzzle the spot. “Gods, I want to mark you so badly,” he added in Saiyan.

                Usagi cried out as she found her release once more as he continued to plow into her with his Saiyan strength unchecked, and for the next two hours she couldn’t even function through the constant tsunami of pleasure overtaking her with every rough thrust of his cock. “Vegeta, please come for me,” she begged for the fourth time. “Please, it’s too much.”

                “You said you were mine… to do with as… I wished,” Vegeta panted, sweat pouring down his face as he continued to plow into her. “And I want… you coming… until you’re… screaming… Besides,” he added, “I’ve come… five times… already…”

                If she hadn’t been trying to stay conscious, Sailor Moon’s jaw would have been hanging at such a statement; had she really gotten him off that much!? Then again, she vaguely remembered him slowing on several occasions as he announced his pleasure with a yell, only to pick up the pace once more to make her echo his cry of ecstasy. ”I’m going to… beat your ass… if you don’t… kill me tonight…”

                “What a way… to go…” he groaned, emptying into her one last time. He grinned down at her as he realized that he was still hard and ready for more, but he relented at the sight of her sweaty, flushed face. “Break time,” he purred, kissing her tenderly. “Mmm… gods, woman. You’re like a fucking drug.”

                “And you’re like the Energizer Bunny,” Usagi whimpered. “I’m starting to think I should’ve gotten you socks instead. Maybe a nice tie.”

                “Oh no, woman. Best gift ever. And I’m planning on thoroughly enjoying my new toy before I break it like an overeager child,” he laughed, scooping her up since he realized she probably wouldn’t be able to walk right away after such a blatantly Saiyan pounding. “Bath first. Then food. Then **_more_** ,” he told her happily, kissing her as he carried her into the bathroom and sat her in the spacious tub while he filled it with water.

                “Maybe a tie that says ‘Best Fuck in the Universe,’” Usagi whimpered as she wasted a senzu to relieve the hardcore ache between her thighs.

                “Oh my fucking God, I would **_so_** fucking wear that!” Vegeta laughed as he slid in behind her and cut off the water. “The look on Trunks’s face… hahahaha!”

                Hearing Vegeta laugh so genuinely warmed her, and she found herself wanting nothing more than to detransform and reveal herself to him. But no, that would be a very, very bad idea. “You’ll have to take a picture of his face for me when you walk in wearing it,” Sailor Moon chuckled.

                “I don’t know if you know… but I absolutely _hate_ fucking ties,” Vegeta continued, still laughing softly. “But if you got me that tie, woman, I wouldn’t take it off. Ever. Hmm… I’d better get you something just as complimentary to match,” he added with a slow, gentle bite to her shoulder. “Maybe those socks you mentioned,” he purred in her ear.

                Usagi bit back a reply when he began to attentively wash her, and leaned back into his muscled chest with a little gurgle of pleasure when he slid her hair to the side and began to nibble at her shoulder. “Can’t wear the socks,” she mumbled, “you’d just knock them right off again.”

                “Mmm, I beg to differ, woman. You knocked mine off with that little outfit… now I wish I hadn’t shredded it.”

                “You can keep the remains as a souvenir,” she giggled, then gasped as he ground his already hard arousal into her thigh as he sat her on his lap.

                “Moon?” Vegeta asked seriously.

                “Hm?” Usagi turned her head to regard him with a soft smile before kissing him briefly.

                “This is… tell me that this isn’t a one-time thing,” he rumbled, cupping her cheek.

                “I… you’d like it to be… to be more?” She asked nervously, looking away as she chewed on her lower lip in a very Usagi fashion.

                “You don’t.”

                The flash of pain in his eyes made her sigh and turn to straddle him, and Usagi slowly cupped his face and brushed her mouth over his. It felt so good to kiss him, to let him hold her like that, and she moaned a little when his hands began to wander. “Let me think about it,” she breathed against his mouth. “I care about you, Vegeta, but… it’s not easy to just throw caution to the wind where my identity’s concerned.”

                The Saiyan prince nodded slightly and lifted her a little to join their bodies once more, this time moving inside of her gently, drinking in her little gasps of pleasure as he claimed her mouth. He knew all about caution, and if she needed a little time to think it over, that’s what he’d give her before he claimed her as his mate. “Tonight, though?” He whispered in her ear.

                “Yours until dawn,” she replied breathlessly, arching into his mouth as he began to explore her breasts with his lips and tongue, still rocking into her at a leisurely pace. “Whatever you want until then, Vegeta… Kami, you feel so good,” she added softly, clutching at him as she threw back her head and moaned her pleasure. “I should have done this sooner,” she whispered as she came down from her high a little.

                “It was worth the wait,” he whispered against her shoulder, biting down lightly on the spot. “Come on,” he continued, his eyes softening to match his voice. “Back to the bed, Moon.”

                She nodded helplessly and let him lift her out of the tub and dry them both hurriedly, and before she knew it, she was flat on her back in his bed and he was inside of her again. Only this time he was worshiping her body as gently as possible, properly making love to her, and her heart ached a little at the thought of making this a one-time-only thing.

###################

                “No,” he whispered sleepily, tugging the soft, warm body back into his arms the moment he felt it trying to slip out of the bed.

                Sailor Moon sighed and shook her head; she’d known this was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. “Vegeta… it’s nearly dawn. I need to go.”

                “Not dawn yet,” he breathed into her golden hair, breathing deeply of her scent. “You’re still mine, _r’sha_.”

                That last word was spoken in that language she didn’t understand, and she found herself curious as to its meaning; she’d heard him whisper it to her countless times throughout the night and had a feeling that it was something important, more than just a term of endearment. “Vegeta… what does that mean?” She asked softly.

                “I… it means…” Vegeta swallowed and nipped at her shoulder lightly as her words in the cabin came back to him. _Sometimes a woman needs to hear it, Prince._ “I…”

                “It’s alright,” Usagi replied understandingly. “Forget I asked, Vegeta… really, it’s ok.”

                “No,” he grunted, rolling on top of her and pinning her down the moment she tried to slide out of the bed. “Let me… I just…” Vegeta sighed at her slightly exasperated expression and sagged against her, his lips gently exploring hers. “Don’t go,” he finally managed, past caring whether or not it sounded like he was begging. “Please, _r’sha_ … stay with me.”

                “Vegeta, I… I told you. This was only until dawn,” she replied with a hitch in her voice, tears welling up in her eyes. Gods, it felt so right, just staying there with him… just as right as it did with Prince… was it possible for her to be so deeply in love with two men at the same time? “Please don’t make this any harder than it already is,” she finally sighed.

                “I don’t mean to,” he whispered tenderly, his hands stroking her soothingly. “Tell me that you’ll come back to me, Moon. Even if it’s a lie,” he added hoarsely. “I just don’t want this to end.”

                “I don’t want to ever lie to you, Vegeta.” She kissed him briefly, her fingers brushing over his stubbled jawline. “I’ll think about it, alright? That’s the best answer I can give you right now.”

                Knowing exactly why she was so hesitant, Vegeta nodded wearily and nipped at her shoulder once more, wishing desperately that he could just bite down and stake his claim. “I… it means that…” He took a deep shuddering breath before kissing the spot where he would hopefully mark her one day soon. “I love you,” he breathed so softly that she barely heard him. “Literally translated, it means ‘beloved.’” The very humbled Prince of all Saiyans looked up to find tears in her eyes and frowned at the sight. “I’m sorry, Moon. Go. I’ll be here waiting when you make a decision… I’ll be waiting even if you never do.”

                With a heavy sigh, she pulled him down to her and kissed him, tangling her fingers in his hair as she rocked her hips into his once. She couldn’t give him an answer… but she could give him her body one more time, and she could give him hope. But she stopped him when he began to trail a series of slow, open-mouthed kisses down to her stomach, his intent on pleasuring her with his tongue crystal clear. “No,” she breathed, pulling him back up, “make love to me, Vegeta.” This was to be about him, not her, but she couldn’t think of any other way to word her intentions other than to wrap her legs around his waist and offer herself with a subtle movement of her hips.

                “Anything for you, _r’sha_ ,” Vegeta whispered, his voice trembling with emotion as he slowly sank into her warmth. “I’ll give you anything you want, beautiful… name it and it’s yours. Just be mine.”

                He began to move then and Usagi whimpered helplessly, arching into him as he took her slowly and gently. She’d had only his pleasure in mind, but apparently he’d been thinking the exact opposite, wanting only to show her how much he treasured her. He couldn’t give her tender and romantic words… but he could tell her with his body how he felt about her.


	14. Chapter 14

“This coffee tastes different.”

                Usagi cringed a little at the tone of his voice and hunkered down behind her computer. “I thought you’d like it, Mr. Briefs. Sorry, I’ll fix another pot.”

                “Never said I didn’t like it. Just said it was different,” he grunted.

                She sighed in relief and continued to do her work; she knew why he was in such a black mood this morning but she couldn’t let on that she knew. He’d woken up stomping downstairs loudly and into the kitchen, and had then given her a look that she hadn’t _even_ been able to describe. So she’d just tried to stay quiet and give him his space.

Usagi jumped a little as a kiss to the top of her head broke her out of her thoughts.

                “It’s good, Usa. Thank you,” Vegeta sighed into her hair, trying not to give in to either urge running through him. One was to call her out on being Sailor Moon and confront her about the night before; the other was to swipe the computer and the papers off the table and tip her back onto it and take her. “Your plans for today?”

                “I was going to have Piccolo take me into town today, but I can’t find him. I think I have an idea where he’s at though,” she giggled. “So if you don’t mind, I’ll drive straight over there and then have him accompany me.”

                He sat down across from her and shook his head slowly. “I don’t want you going out alone,” he said firmly, “but,” he added as she opened her mouth to protest, “you can take Kakarot’s grandbrat with you.”

                “Huh? Pan? Why?” Usagi fluffed her hair in confusion when Vegeta grinned and chuckled. “What’s so funny?”

                “You’re going to play Cupid, woman, that’s what’s so funny. You take Pan out ‘shopping’,” he said, winking his fingers in the air in little quotation marks, “and I inform Trunks as to her whereabouts. They’ll take you to the Namek, and then the four of you will split up. Sound fair?” The slow grin over her face told him that she was more than happy to hook Trunks up with the object of his desire. “Good. Now call Gohan and tell him you’ll be picking her up. Say that you want a woman’s opinion on something.”

                “That’s actually a great idea,” she snickered, whipping out her untraceable cell phone. “Just let me confirm Piccolo’s whereabouts… hang on…” She dialed the bakery quickly as she stepped out of the room, and when Makoto picked up she blanched a little, at a loss for what to say. “Hi… um… see, I was looking for a friend of mine that should be there, but I’m not sure if you’ve actually seen him.”

                “Ooook?” Mako’s voice replied slowly. “What’s he look like?”

                “Well, you see… he’s green, has pointy ears and wears this whooshy white cape and—“

                “Yeah, yeah. I know him. He’s hiding in a tree out front and thinks I can’t see him. He appears to have great hearing, too, since the moment I said that he moved to another tree. And another… and another… damn if this isn’t fun watching him dart around. Now the roof… hey! Who is he anyway? I’ve been thinking ‘stalker’ for a couple days now, but he never bothers me, even when he follows me home and thinks I’m unaware of him. Hell, who are _you_!?”

                “Um… uh… I’m a friend of his. And he’s just keeping an eye on you for me…?” Usagi answered hesitantly, groaning a little at the knowledge that her answers would only cause more questions.

                Oh, and they did. “And why in the hell would I need someone to keep an eye on me!? I can take care of myself just fine, thank you!”

                “Look, Makoto… please just do me a favor and suspend disbelief for one moment. There’s something that may or may not be after you, and I asked my green friend to just keep an eye out for anyone hassling you. It’s something that you don’t stand a chance against, and—ah! Nope! Shut it, Mako!” Usagi said quickly when the former Senshi of lightning started cussing her out. “I know you’re an awesome fighter, Mako. But this thing is even better than you, and the green guy is, too. So do yourself a favor and don’t run him off, ok? He might be the only thing to save you if you’re attacked.”

                “Whatever.” Click.

                “That went well,” Usagi muttered dryly as she put her phone away.

############################

                The drop-off with Trunks went just fine, but it took a lot of convincing for Usagi to get them to just go while she waited on Piccolo. The moment they were out of sight she used her disguise pen, changing into a long-haired brunette with glasses and green eyes before she got to the bakery. “Come on out, Piccolo,” she chuckled, looking up into the trees.

                “Don’t know why I bother fucking hiding,” she heard him mutter from above. When he dropped down he locked eyes with Makoto, who was just glaring at them from behind her counter, and he flushed a deep purple in embarrassment. “She hates me now, I know it,” he whispered. “Dunno why I care though.”

                “Because you think she’s cute,” Usagi giggled. “It’s ok, Piccolo, it sort of comes with the territory of having a penis. Don’t worry though; I’m trying to figure out a way to reverse it. “ She was about to say something else when the bell on the door dinged and it flew open, and Usagi found herself cringing as she stared at a thoroughly pissed off Kino Makoto. “Eeek! Mako! Don’t kick me! Damn it!”

                “Who are you!?” The princess of Jupiter snapped at her, backing her up into a tree, pinning her in place with an elbow at her throat.

                “She’s Sailor Moon in disguise,” Piccolo grunted from behind the angry brunette.

                “Oh? Well, shit. That changes a lot,” Mako said with interest, backing up to study the woman in front of her. “So, what’s after me and why?”

                “Someone that uses powers like mine, which is why you wouldn’t be able to fight against them,” Usagi sighed. “But I can’t tell you why. Please just accept that, alright?”

                “Senshi business, I take it,” Makoto said lightly. Turning to Piccolo, she sized him up with an appreciative eye and winked at him. “So, green bean… what’s _your_ name?”

                Blushing even brighter than before, his eyes a little wide as she stepped towards him, Piccolo scurried back and twitched nervously. “Um… Piccolo.”

                “Kino Makoto,” she said with a sultry little smile as she sauntered closer, holding out her hand to shake.

                “I know,” he muttered, still backing away, shooting a giggling Usagi a “Help Me!” look before leaping back into a tree and away from the green-eyed predator smiling up at him.

                “He’s awfully shy,” she chuckled. “I like that, it’s pretty cute… and I _love_ a challenge.” She turned her grin on Usagi, who was still laughing, leaning against the tree for support. “So, I’m assuming that you’re taking off with big, green and sexy for a little while. I’ll try to stay out of trouble until he returns, I guess.”

                “Oh, hush. You’re embarrassing him,” Usa giggled. “He’s totally not used to being teased.”

                “So I’ve noticed.” Mako looked up and smiled at Piccolo, who was peeking down through the branches nervously. “I was just kidding around, honey. You can come on down.”

                _The fuck she was,_ Piccolo thought, vigorously shaking his head as he gripped a limb tightly.

                Despite a couple more attempts to get him down, Makoto finally just laughed as she went back inside, and Piccolo eyed her warily through the glass when she winked at him from behind the counter and wiggled her fingers at him. “Why did she keep trying to get me to come down?” He mumbled out of the corner of his mouth, not once taking his eyes off the beautiful woman that was simply smiling at him. That smile was doing funny things to his stomach, just as it had since the first time he’d seen her.

                “She likes you, Piccolo. It’s a _good_ thing,” Usa chuckled. “Now come on, and I’ll fill you in on what happened two nights ago before we start some shit.”

                Usagi let him scoop her up and take off into the air with her as she gave him the quick version and his jaw simply tightened in response. “So, what’s your plan?” He finally grunted.

                “We’re going to have a talk with the head boss of the Triads. I can teleport, so if I say to grab me, you need to do it fast. Moon Cosmic Power, Make Up!” She finished with a shout. “Ready? Land a few blocks from here. We’re going in from the ground level,” she said, pointing towards a parking garage.

                “Why exactly are we going to talk to the Triads?” Piccolo wondered aloud as they landed.

                “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” she replied simply, fiddling with her gloves as she led him through a set of doors and into an elevator. “Stay close to me and don’t talk, ok? I would have called Prince, but…” She shrugged a little and blushed. “I didn’t think he’d go along with something like this, and his mouth would have likely ran away with him if he’d agreed to it.”

                “So he’s Prince now, huh?” Piccolo chuckled. Well, at least the name was fitting.

                “Seemed odd to moan ‘Casper’ in bed,” she admitted, turning an even brighter shade of red.

                “Ah. Not a bad pairing if you ask me.” Usagi opened her mouth to respond, but the elevator door opened just then and they were greeted by a dozen armed gang members pointing guns right at their heads.

                “Well, that confirms my suspicion of cameras on the elevator,” she deadpanned. “I just want to speak to your boss. I have a proposition for him that he will find very profitable for your organization. No tricks, no fighting. Just talking, I swear it on the moon.”

                “Let them through,” a voice ordered over the intercom.

                Both Sailor Moon and Piccolo blinked in surprise at how easy that had been, exchanged a look, then shrugged. “Onward and upward?” She asked. When her Namekian friend just nodded she led them through the throng of men eyeing them suspiciously, right into a large office. “Mr. Chen,” she said with mild surprise. “I wasn’t sure if you’d made it out the other night.”

                “With only a few wounds, as you can see,” he said bluntly, adjusting his eye patch with the hand that wasn’t in the sling.

                Moon also noted that one of his legs was in a cast and smirked a little at the sight of Prince’s handiwork. “Tell you what. Since you were kind enough to let us in without shooting us… I’ll heal you up. Sound good?”

                “In exchange for letting you walk back out, I’m sure,” he drawled, obviously pleased at the prospect of being rid of his broken bones and lack of one eye.

                “Of course! It would be the polite thing to do,” Usagi snorted, rising from her seat to immediately put her hands up when four red dots centered on her chest. “Uh, I have to touch him to heal him, gentlemen. Duh.”

                “It’s fine, boys. I don’t think Ms. Moon would have come all this way during the day just to kill a lame old man.” He beckoned her over and held still when she removed his eye patch to reveal a gaping hole, and nodded a little at her grimace. “That friend of yours punched me so hard it knocked my eye out of my socket. And that was merely a glancing blow. Can you fix it?”

                “Hm… hai. But it’ll take a little while. May we speak while I do my thing?”

                “Of course, Ms. Moon. Lee, bring some tea for all three of us please. Cigarette, my dear?” Chen placed one in her mouth and graciously lit it for her when she nodded slightly, her fingertips exploring the ridge around his eye as she began to use her healing light.

                “This may be a little uncomfortable,” she advised, using her free hand to puff on her smoke. “Piccolo, you can sit and stay awhile,” she added with a smile. “This will take a hot minute.”

                “I don’t see why in Kami’s name you’re healing the Triad boss,” he grumbled.

                “And neither do I,” Chen admitted suspiciously.

                “Because I need your help,” she responded simply. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And my enemy is Diamond. He nearly killed me the other night after breaking a truce agreement over peace talks. I’m done fucking with him; I’m sure you’d be, too.”

                “Yes, I would be. Say what you will about me, I’ve always respected an agreement for a ceasefire. Like right now. So long as you don’t act aggressively, you’ll walk out of here unscathed. Honor amongst thieves and all that rot. Ah—stings.”

                “Sorry, it’s going to. I’m regrowing your eyeball.”

                “Just do it and ignore my whining,” he snorted, sipping at his tea carefully so as not to move too much. “So… why would you be having peace talks with Diamond? Were you plotting to have me taken out?” He asked curiously.

                “Shit, no. I could have done that myself. Diamond’s obsessed with me. He has been since I was sixteen, and he refuses to leave me alone. And for the record, he has the same level of powers that I had a few years ago, so he would have no trouble taking you out, either. He’s just been toying with you for entertainment.”

                “He told you this?”

                “No, but I know him well enough to know when he’s just messing around for sport. Mr. Chen, he’s been doing it to **_me_** for years,” she added seriously. “Anyway, now that I have a… a boyfriend of sorts…” Usagi shrugged and sighed.

                “The Ghost?”

                “Yeah, pretty much. And Diamond knows, too. He’s jealous as hell about it, even though I’ve been telling him for over a decade that he and I will never happen. So. My deal is this. I call a ceasefire with you for whatever timeframe you and I can come up with, under certain conditions. In exchange, you lose a business rival. Eh, close your other eye for a moment. I want the lids to match up right.”

                “And after the ceasefire’s over?” He asked as he felt a growing ache in his empty socket.

                “Back to the way we were. Hatfields and McCoys. Relax… I’ll be done in a moment, just don’t tense up… there. All done. Open up for me.”

                Mr. Chen slowly grinned as he opened his eyes and saw her clearly through both of them. “I’d kiss you if I didn’t hate your guts,” he chuckled.

                “Same!” Usagi laughed heartily, tipping him a wink. “I think I’ll take sparing our lives in exchange just fine. Now, the arm. So…? Are you game for our little alliance, Mr. Chen?”

                “It’s not a bad proposition. But tell me, dear… what exactly would your conditions be?”

                “You operate as normal during our ceasefire. Minus anything involving innocent people. No more drivebys. You want to off someone for owing you money? Fine, I guess. I hate to compromise my ideals like that, but by God, leave the innocent bystanders out of it, ok? I know you have kids; how would you feel if it was one of yours getting hit by a stray bullet? Or one of your kids being sold drugs?”

                “I see your point and appreciate it, Ms. Moon, but it’s just collateral damage in this business. But… I’ll agree to your terms. Length of the truce?”

                “Hang on. Piccolo, if you’d break that cast open without jarring his leg too much, I’d appreciate it.”

                The Namekian nodded as he set down his tea and examined the plaster carefully before simply zapping it off. “It’s a Dragon clan skill,” he explained absently before returning to his seat, listening intently to the rest of the discussion. The Queen of the Stars was definitely a damned fine negotiator; he could learn a thing or two from her.

                “I was thinking a few years, honestly,” Usagi said wistfully. “Trust me, I need the vacation.”

                “Yeah, I don’t see that happening, but I expected the opening offer to be ridiculous,” he replied pleasantly, putting her cigarette out for her when she’d smoked it to the butt. “Hm… leg itches.”

                “It’s normal,” she said absently. “And remember that I’m helping you eliminate a rival in drug trafficking, gambling, investments, and etcetera. I’m doing you just as big a favor, Chen.”

                “Not even including the healing, you’d be right. Hmm… a month after Diamond’s dead.”

                “Oh, puh-lease. I know you can do better than a month, Chen. Let me take a well-earned vacation. Did you know that I also work like, sixteen hour days at my regular job? How about a year. Well, er… a year and a month. I wouldn’t want it to end just before Christmas; that’s my favorite holiday.”

                Chen sighed a little and smiled despite a shake of his head. “I’ll tell you what, Ms. Moon. I’m feeling very generous right now. Six months. And the week of Christmas until the day after the New Year so long as I’m boss. Just like a school break.”

                “Mr. Chen,” Usagi said brightly, beaming happily, “I think we have a deal. And you’re lucky I got to this leg; it was healing all wrong. It’s fixed now, though.”

                Chen flexed his leg and smiled at her as he shook her hand. “We have a deal, Ms. Moon. Lee, see to it that our deal is known by even the pushers out on the street by the end of tomorrow. No kids, period. No more drivebys, and Ms. Moon, her green friend and The Ghost are not to be touched. Anyone disobeying will be shot. Understood?”

                “Yes sir,” Lee said quickly before leaving the room.

                “So, Ms. Moon… how are we going to do this, exactly?”

                Usagi just grinned and tried not to bounce in place; she was finally going to be rid of Diamond and get a vacation! “God, I haven’t been this excited since I was a teenager, please forgive my reaction!” She giggled. “A real vacation… ah, it’s just too awesome after sixteen years of kicking ass and taking names.”

                “Every day?”

                “In some form or another, every day,” she confirmed. “Alright… I have a bit of a plan hatching on this one, but I really need to talk to my other friend first and make sure he doesn’t have a better idea. The Ghost is ridiculously good at coming up with strategies.” Usagi slid a pen off Chen’s desk and jotted down her superhero hotline number. “Just give me a call if you want to talk, otherwise I’ll call you tomorrow morning. Sound good?”

                “Sounds perfect. In the meantime, I’m going to take a walk and test out the new leg, Ms. Moon. In fact, let me escort you to the door,” he offered with a gracious sweep of his arm.

#################################

                Prince jumped in surprise when Sailor Moon immediately leapt on him and hugged him tightly, kissing him senseless as she squealed with happiness. “Whoa… definitely didn’t expect that,” he chuckled. “I take it you called me here for good news?”

                “THE BEST! I took Piccolo with me to see Mr. Chen, the leader of the Triads, and I enlisted his help in taking out Diamond and the Yakuza!”

                Vegeta’s face immediately fell and hardened, and Usagi stared at him in surprise when he yanked himself out of her arms to lean against the far wall… and far away from her. “What, Prince? I… I thought you’d be happy. No more Diamond, no more Yakuza, and Chen has agreed to a ceasefire for six months. No more drivebys, no kids or innocents involved in anything whatsoever.”

                “And what happens when he goes right back to pushing crack on little kids in late June?” He rumbled softly, his ki trembling in anger as he tried not to scream at her. “What happens when someone else just rises up to lead the Yakuza? Moon, you actually allied yourself with the fucking enemy,” he snapped, still keeping his voice low. “I never thought of you as one to compromise. Ever. I thought you were always all or nothing.”

                Tears welling up in her eyes, Sailor Moon’s fists clenched tightly and her mouth opened several times before she spoke, her voice thick. “I wasn’t compromising, Prince,” she whispered. “I just wanted a break… and this was the closest thing I could get to it. There’ll be bad men and crime everywhere in the world, no matter what I do. I’m just taking the devil I don’t know over the devil I do. Anyone’s better than Diamond. I… I thought you’d understand that, Prince. And six months of just being normal… **_fuck_** my standards. I’d sell my very soul for that.”

                “Moon goddess… if you just wanted a break, then you should have taken one. Not you, nor I, can ever wipe out all of the corruption in one big city, let alone the world. But to make deals with the devil… even if it means you can take a break without worrying about the kids in South City being affected…” Vegeta shook his head and sighed. “That I can’t agree with, no matter how good your intentions were. You just can’t make deals with those types of people. I know,” he added with a whisper. “Because I used to be one of them.”

                He nodded and looked away in slight shame when she met his eyes. “I’m proof that anyone can change, moon goddess. But… if I were to meet myself thirty years ago, I’d kill him on the spot. I was a very bad man. The worst, in fact. Downright fucking evil and I killed without prejudice. Men, women, children. It didn’t matter. It was all a job to me, the same as it is to the gangs in South City. To them it’s just business and money; they don’t care whose lives they ruin in the process. I wouldn’t make deals with the old me, and I won’t make deals with them, either.”

                Sailor Moon just hung her head and wiped at her eyes, unable to look up at him in total embarrassment. No matter how she tried to justify her actions, it came down to the same damned thing. He was right. “I already shook on it,” she breathed between sobs.

                Prince caught her up in his arms and breathed in her scent as he signaled for Piccolo and Goku. _Don’t come here, but I need to speak with you urgently. Give me five minutes._ “Moon goddess, look at me.” When her watery eyes met his he kissed her through his bandana. “I want you to take the week off, period. No matter what you hear or see on the news, no matter how worried you might be about anything. Do you understand me?”

                “But, Prince, what—“

                His gloved hand covered her mouth and he sternly shook his head. “No questions. You made a deal, and you’re going to stick to it. But I did no such thing. So stay home and lay low. I’ll be in touch.” That same hand covered her eyes as he shrugged his bandana down and kissed her firmly, a low moan starting in the back of his throat as his beast began to purr softly for her in a mixture of comfort and desire.

                Usagi blinked when he removed his hand. “Just remember the safewords if you need me,” she sighed. “And Prince, I’m sorry, for what it’s worth. I… I should have spoken with you first. I really fucked this up.”

                “Yeah, you did; I won’t lie. But we’ll fix it. I’ll call you tonight.”

#######################################

                _“We need a safe word, Prince.”_

_Vegeta grinned and snorted. “Really, now? Are you ready to start getting kinky or something, Moon?”_

_Usagi blushed a little before shaking her head vigorously. “No, no. Not that kind of safe word. A word we can use over the phone if there’s trouble and we’re being used as bait. My Senshi and I used ‘banana.’ You know, something we wouldn’t use in normal everyday conversation. And if we ever did need to say banana, we’d say ‘that fruit’ instead. It became a private joke.”_

_“Two things you’ll never hear me say,” Prince chuckled softly, “are that ‘L’ word and that Namek’s name. If you hear either, woman, I’m about to fucking die.”_

_Usagi giggled and shook her head. “Fair enough. I’ll stick with banana, it’s been ingrained in me for years.”_

#######################################

                “Hey, Vegeta. Where’s the fire?” Goku asked seriously, taking in the fact that his best friend was dressed as The Ghost.

                “The Namek didn’t clue you in, apparently. And before I go into detail, I just want to know what in the _hell_ you were thinking?” He snapped at Piccolo.

                “She asked me to come with her. And I’m not one to question the Queen of the Stars, Vegeta. It doesn’t matter that I thought the deal she made was a bad idea. I take it we agree?”

                “It’s the worst fucking idea I’ve ever heard of,” he spat, yanking down his bandana as he glared at the green man. “And since she shook on it, I’m cleaning up the mess. And since you were there, you can’t help me do it. You may as well have shaken hands with Chen as well. That leaves you, Kakarot. Ready to wreak some Super Saiyan havoc on the Triads? Your Superman to my Batman?”

                “That still leaves the Yakuza,” Piccolo rumbled before Goku could answer.

                “I’ll worry about the damned Yakuza. And Diamond. Usagi wants a break from all the fighting? She’ll fucking get it. We’ll take out the Triads first, all of them. Then after that, we’re picking off Yakuza.”

                “Shit,” Piccolo sighed. “I’ll go then, and tell Goten and Gohan to keep a good eye on Mercury and Mars. I’ve been watching out for Sailor Jupiter.”

                “Well, Kakarot?” Vegeta asked seriously.

                “No, Vegeta. I’m sorry, but I don’t kill, you know that. And that’s what needs to be done, isn’t it?” Goku frowned and shook his head. “If you need help with anything else though, just ask.”

                “Keep an eye on Usagi, then. Stay over at Capsule Corp for the night and make sure that she stays put, no matter what pops up on the news. I’ll be taking Trunks.”

###############################

                “Feel like being my sidekick, boy? I’m going out to be the Dark Knight for the evening.”

                Trunks chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Only if I get to be Jason Todd. The Red Hood was the fucking man, but Dick Grayson dressed like a flamer.”

                “The Red Hood was willing to kill, so suit up. Ball cap, black bandana, all black clothes. I’ll be waiting in the gravity room.”

##################################

                Usagi sighed and finally just snapped her laptop shut before tossing it half-heartedly onto the couch. The TV had her full attention despite the fact that nothing of interest was scrolling across the screen, but since she was waiting to see something—anything—that told her what was Prince was up to, she couldn’t even concentrate on work.

                “Brought food!”

                She looked up from the couch to see Son Goku coming in through the back door and shrugged. “Vegeta and Trunks are pulling an all-nighter in the training room. I would have complained, but they need the father-son bonding time.”

                Grinning ear to ear, Goku merely set the bags of takeout on the coffee table and plopped down beside her. “I know. And Chi-Chi’s still out of town visiting her father, so I’m bored out of my skull. Vegeta knew and asked if I could keep you company.”

                What he didn’t and wouldn’t mention was the fact that his presence was a Saiyan custom; when one warrior left to do battle and a close friend of his stayed behind, the friend always cared for the mate of the other. Vegeta had done it for Chi-Chi on more than one occasion, and Goku had no qualms about returning the favor. “I guess I don’t mind, Son-san… but I may have to pop out for a bit later on if I get a call.”

                A call? Well… if Vegeta was calling her, it would be an emergency, so Goku figured he could let that slide. But he wasn’t letting her leave under any circumstances over something she’d seen on the TV. “Just call me Goku. Here, eat, Usa. What are we watching, anyway?”

                “Stock tickers,” she lied as she opened a box of sushi rolls and began to devour them absently. Usagi stiffened when the sun started to go down and the newscast switched to a bulletin only halfway through their meal, and she grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

                _“This just in… it seems that several large explosions have rocked the inner city this evening. The damage appears to be concentrated near the banking district and—“_ The female anchor stopped and glanced off-screen for a moment, her eyes widening in surprise. _“Apparently there have been three more explosions in the slums as well, and we have an eye witness that swears she saw The Ghost and another dressed like him fleeing the scene at superhuman speeds.”_

                “Fuck,” Usagi whispered under her breath, her hand flexing as she itched to reach into her subspace. But not with Goku in the room; he didn’t know who she was and she couldn’t risk giving herself away. “Goku, I need to make a phone call. Excuse me for a moment, and please forgive my rudeness.”

                “You’re fine,” he said nonchalantly, immediately homing in on her ki as she left the room. If she teleported out he’d go after her and deal with the consequences later. He’d prefer that Usagi didn’t know that they knew about her alter-ego, but it simply wasn’t safe for her to venture into the city right then, superpowers or no superpowers.

                “Mako? Yes, I desperately need to talk to Piccolo. It’s urgent,” Usagi whispered into her phone as she paced the kitchen floor, unaware that Goku’s super hearing was picking up her every word.

                “I already know,” Piccolo grunted on the other end. “Prince’s instructions were clear. Stay put and don’t go anywhere, no matter what you might think or see. I sent Goku over to watch you, so—“

                “YOU WHAT!?”

                “He already knew,” Piccolo replied flatly. “He’s not nearly as retarded as everyone thinks he is; being a simple man is something totally different than being a stupid man. Besides, give me credit, Usagi. Do you really think I’m the type to run my mouth?”

                “No,” she admitted with a grumble, “you’re not. Anyone else that knows I’m Sailor Moon that I’m not aware of?” A very pregnant pause was all the answer she needed as she imagined him fishing for an answer that wouldn’t be a total lie. “Who. Just spit it out, already.”

                “That’s not my place,” he finally said. “For the record, it’s only people that have figured it out on their own; we haven’t went around and blabbed it or anything.”

                “Fine. Whatever.” Click. “GOKU!” Usagi snapped as she stomped back in. She stopped when she found him smirking at her in amusement, however, and itched to smack the expression right off his face. “You could have told me that you knew, damn it.”

                “It wasn’t my business. I just happened to figure it out, is all.”

                “How?” She asked slowly.

                Goku just grinned and his hand flew to the back of his head. “Late nights, gone all the time… I can’t even sense your ki when you somehow manage to escape, so you must be using some sort of powers to do it. Oh, and your scars. They’re a dead giveaway. No one gets shot that damned much unless they’re a fighter of some sorts.”

                Usagi blanched at that and abruptly sat down on the floor. “Mr. Briefs… Vegeta…? Does… does he…? He saw my scars,” she whispered to herself. Hell, he’d treated several of the wounds that had caused them.

                “Eh… after that whole thing in the medlab, Usagi? I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s probably just waiting for you to come out and tell him. If you hadn’t noticed, Vegeta’s a pretty tight-lipped guy, and it’s obvious that he’s in love with you. He wouldn’t have wanted to upset you by saying something.”

                “He knew before that, Goku. And I know he told you if he did, so don’t lie to me,” she ordered firmly, staring him down even from her much lower position.

                The Saiyan sighed heavily and hung his head for a long moment before nodding slightly. “The second time he helped you with your migraines,” he confirmed. “It wasn’t as dark and he noted the bullet scars. And you slipped up, Usagi. The first time you said the scar on your thigh was from a childhood accident. The second time you said it was from a gunshot.”

                “Fuck.” Well, she had no one but herself to blame for that one. Vegeta was observant as hell if nothing else, and it wasn’t surprising that he’d caught her mistake. “So he… when he…” Usagi immediately wiped at her eyes when the tears started to fall and shook her head in disbelief. “He loves me. He knew it was me when he said it.”

                “ ** _Whoa_**. He _said_ it?” Goku asked in simple shock. “Vegeta actually said the ‘L’ word. You’re _shitting me_ , right!? Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where are you going!?” He shouted when she stood and started to rush out the back door. He snagged her by the arm when it was obvious that she was heading for the training room, and Goku was sweating bullets at the thought of her going in there to find no one training. “You don’t want to interrupt Vegeta during one of these all-nighters, Usagi. Just… just trust me, ok? Let it wait until morning. Besides, he needs this time with Trunks right now. Vegeta’s only just realized what a sub-par father he’s been over the last decade, and he’s trying his best to make it right.”

                That gently-spoken statement decided Usagi, and she sighed and nodded as she let Goku lead her inside, where the news was reporting more fires in South City, more explosions, and reports of shots fired. Every block they mentioned, every building, and every intersection were well known to her; they were all Triad territories for selling drugs, hiding out, gambling… basically anything. And the latest building reported burning out of control was Chen’s main headquarters. “Damn it, Prince. Please be careful. Please don’t let anyone innocent get caught up in this.”

                “Don’t beat yourself up too much, Usa. You made an error in judgment. And Prince has made _plenty_ of those, so he won’t beat you up about it too badly, either.” Goku realized his slip when Usagi’s eyes widened. “Ugh… shit. Yeah, I know him, too. And _no_ , I am _not_ telling you who he is. Dear Kami, he’d slit my throat,” he sputtered.

                Usagi just let it go and sighed as she went over every little encounter with her boss since he’d discovered who she was, and an awful lot of things suddenly made sense. Yeah, he was definitely in love with her, and he’d fallen hard. _But… but Prince…_ She hated to admit it, but she loved both men. Not just crushes or a deep affection; she was truly in love with both of them. “And I doubt they’d share,” she muttered to herself, blushing when Goku obviously heard her and laughed.

                “Oh hell, no. One thing they definitely have in common is extreme jealousy. Best that you don’t let them know about each other, Usagi, or you’ll have a fight on your hands.” Goku stiffened and scowled at something on the TV before she could answer him, and slowly shook his head after several long moments. “Arrogant little pricks… I just knew they’d do something like that.”

                “What… what is that, Goku? What are they drawing with the fire?”

                “The symbol of their House,” he replied with a snort. “Real mature, Prince. Yeah, write your name in the snow and get shot while you’re at it.”

                “Who is he with?” Usagi asked curiously. “Their build is about the same and you said ‘their’ House, so I assume they’re family? And I know Prince is a little older, judging by a few things he’s said.”

                “It’s his son,” Goku confirmed. “And don’t bring up his age,” he chuckled. “By his people’s standards, he’s physically just out of his teens, and Prince gets awfully sensitive about being called old.”

                Usagi’s phone rang then and she jumped at the noise before bobbling it for a moment and answering it. “Prince!? Are you ok?”

                “I’m unharmed, but my… friend. He’s shot. I’ll meet you at the cabin.”

                “Goku, I have to go now. Prince’s son’s been shot,” she said quickly, muttering her transformation line before teleporting straight to the cabin without another word.


	15. Chapter 15

Wringing her hands nervously, Sailor Moon paced the cabin much in the same manner as she had the kitchen back at Capsule Corp, and actually jumped when the door slammed open and she heard Prince yell for her.

                “He’s bleeding out!” He snapped.

                “On the bed,” she instructed hurriedly, immediately filling the younger masked man with her healing light, her hands going straight to the bullet wound in his chest. There was a gurgling noise, and she knew even in the darkness that his lung had been punctured. “I won’t let him die, Prince, don’t worry,” she assured him gently, sensing his deep dread of losing the young man on the bed. “Goku told me that he’s your son… I won’t let him go. So just relax and take a seat. This will be a little while.”

                Relaxing and taking a seat was simply not something that Vegeta could do, and he paced and tried not to hover while Usagi’s light lit the blackened room and exposed just how bloody Trunks had become.

                It had been the younger Saiyan’s idea to leave their mark on the battlefield, and so caught up in the bloodlust, Vegeta had let it overcome his common sense and had agreed. That’s when Trunks had gotten shot, once in the chest and twice in the leg. Vegeta had gotten there just in time to shield him and take a bullet to the shoulder before blasting the sniper to Hell and getting the fuck out of there. “If he needs blood, use mine,” he offered quietly.

                “I’m not stupid, Prince. You’re losing blood, too, but your wound isn’t as grave. I’ll heal you once your son is out of the danger zone. Ah!” She admonished, shoving the man on the bed down the moment he tried to move. “Lie still, Little Prince, or I’m going to knock your ass out. Don’t move. I’ve got some senzu beans, and once your chest is healed I’ll give you one. I was keeping you alive with my light for a good three or four minutes while I stabilized you.”

                “Listen to her, son. Stay still,” Vegeta ordered softly. “Moon, give me one of those senzu, please.” No sooner had he said it, he was catching one and eating it, and they all heard the sound of the bullet in his shoulder hitting the floor. “The Triads are dead,” he informed her after a few more minutes of silence.

                Usagi trembled and nodded, squeezing her eyes shut as she fought off tears. “I’m sorry. Both of you. I shouldn’t have made that deal.”

                “S’alright,” Trunks whispered, trying to keep his voice low and disguised as he squeezed her hand. “For the record, it’s been years since I’ve gotten to fight like this. It’s good to know I’ve still got it in me. And we did a lot of good, Sailor Moon. Every whore house that the Triads controlled is gone, too.”

                “We got the women out, of course,” Vegeta assured her, his voice dripping with disdain. “Those bastards had little girls in there, moon goddess. Some of them couldn’t have been older than nine or ten. Fucking cocksucking bastards… makes me glad I never had a daughter. After what we saw tonight…” He shook his head slowly, his eyes locked on his boots. “…I’d never let her out of my fucking sight ever again.”

                “We made sure that they’ll be taken care of, Dad. They’ll be fine.” Looking up to Sailor Moon, Trunks brushed away the tears streaming down her face. “We have a friend that works at the hospital, and we made sure that their bills and housing will be paid for. The young ones will go to school, and the older women promised to care for them. They’re all safe. The ones on drugs will get rehab and we’ll help find jobs for them all.”

                “Thank you,” she choked out, fishing a senzu from her subspace and sticking it in his mouth.

                “Are you well enough to fly home, son?” Vegeta asked in concern.

                “Yeah, Dad. Thanks,” Trunks replied as he slid off the bed, careful to keep his hair hidden under his ballcap. One slip of a lavender lock and the jig was up. “Dad?” He asked softly. “Take care of her, ok?”

                Vegeta knew that his son meant an awful lot with those words, and he gave him a nod. “Be sure of it. Go on home, get some rest, and call me if there’s any problem.”

“Oh, and Miss Moon?” Trunks added with a grin behind his bandana, “it’s not ‘Little Prince’. There is _nothing_ about me that is little.”

“Well, then I’m sure you take after your father quite nicely,” she giggled as he walked out the door.

The moment Trunks was out the door and it was pitch black in the room again, Vegeta moved to Usagi’s side, removed his bandana, and kissed her gently. “You alright, goddess?”

                “Yeah,” she replied sullenly. “And I can see a little in here, Prince. Not much at all, but it might be just enough to—“

                “I don’t care anymore,” he sighed. “If you see my face tonight then fuck it,” he replied wearily. “You got anymore linens in your subspace?” He added as he stood her up and stripped the blood-soaked comforter. Thankfully it hadn’t bled through to the mattress; he’d gotten to it in time. Throwing it all in a heap on the floor, he took the clean sheets from her and went about making the bed with her help. “Come on,” he ordered once it was made. “It’s been a long night and I need my rest. You, too.”

                “But work… and… and if I wake before you and see…”

                “Then you see,” he whispered in her ear, his hands wandering her before he could even stop himself. Vegeta chuckled when it was obvious that she was keeping her eyes closed to keep from finding out his identity, and ran a series of kisses down her neck as he began to strip her of her fuku one slow rip at a time. “So much for resting,” he sighed. “I can’t ever seem to want to keep my hands off of you, goddess.” When she opened her mouth to speak he turned her in his arms and ground his arousal into her lower stomach. “Please don’t say no, goddess. I’d say that I want you… but right now it’s a lot more than that.”

                “Prince?”

                “I… damn it, Moon… I…” He nipped at her lower lip as he tore off the remainder of the fuku, trying to find some way of telling her how he loved her. He’d said it before, yes, but it wasn’t a word that Vegeta was exactly used to just blurting out.

                “Safeword?” She breathed huskily, unable to stop her own hands from unbuckling his belt and tugging his pants down to pool around his ankles.

                “Yes,” he groaned just as he captured her lips with his own, sliding his tongue inside to gently stroke over hers, his hands tangling in her hair as he turned them and came down on top of her. “And I swear if you say the Namek’s name I’ll slap you,” he added when he sat up to jerk the rest of his clothing off.

                “Piccolo’s junk is definitely not on my mind right now,” she replied flatly, jerking him back down to her and immediately wrapping her legs around his waist. Usagi was surprised when he didn’t take her at full force, his motions slow and gentle as he kissed her as if he’d die if he didn’t, his mouth and tongue growing forceful despite the tenderness in his careful movements.

                With a fleeting thought for Vegeta, Usagi sighed and simply gave in; she loved them both equally and if Prince wanted her, she couldn’t deny him her body. And he felt so good, so right, taking her up into a climax with little effort while he drank in her moans and worshipped the rest of her with his hands. “I love you,” she breathed between orgasms, clutching at his back, her nails digging into a circular scar on his spine.

                The Saiyan prince bucked hard at the stimulation to his tail scar and threw his head back as he suddenly came in response to the searing pleasure running through the sensitive mark. “Fuck me running,” he groaned, barely able to keep moving to ride out her own abrupt climax. Prince finally sagged on top of her in a sweaty heap, resting his head on her shoulder. “You too, Usa,” he sighed, his body trembling in the aftermath.

                Vegeta felt her stiffen and looked down at her in the pitch. “Did I hurt you, goddess? Here, let me check—“

                “No,” she whispered angrily, sliding out from under him. “You called me Usa. You knew who I was this entire time, Prince? And you couldn’t tell me that?”

                “I didn’t say anything because I knew you’d be upset,” he admitted. “And your secret’s safe with me, goddess,” he added tiredly. “Come to bed. Please. I know you’re mad, but it’s been a very long, stressful night.”

                “At this rate the whole fucking world will know,” Usagi sighed, detransforming into her street clothes and lighting a cigarette at the same time, careful not to look at his face. He’d said she could look, but she frankly wasn’t quite ready to know his identity, not yet. Too much was going on at once, and she needed time to compute it all before adding more to it. “You deserve to know, Prince… but my boss? I love him too,” she admitted softly. “And… I just found out earlier that he knows who I am. I should… I should go,” she added after several moments of what she interpreted as Prince being upset with her confession. “I’m sorry, Prince, but… I really need to think about all of this. It’s just too much to take in at once. Good night.”

                “But… but goddess, I’m—“ He sputtered and groaned, flopping onto his back when she teleported before he could finish his sentence. “Vegeta,” he finished with a soft grumble. “Fuuuuck,” he ground through his teeth.

###############################

                “She came home about two hours ago. Trunks three. Where have _you_ been?” Goku asked curiously when Vegeta walked in the back door.

                “Contemplating hara-kiri while taking a very long shower,” Vegeta mumbled sarcastically. “I called her Usa on accident after I’d taken her as The Ghost. She knows that I know who she is. And apparently _someone_ spilled his guts and told her that her _boss_ knows who she is, too!” He snapped out angrily. “Damn it Kakarot, are you trying to cock block me!?”

                “It didn’t exactly happen like that,” he sighed. “And besides, Vegeta… if you want her for your mate, she deserves to know the truth. The whole truth, about all of us. Don’t you think it’s time you told her?”

                “I’ve thought about it a lot,” he replied seriously. “But she even said it less than two hours ago. She’s got too much on her plate right now. She shouldn’t have to deal with anything else. So I’m going to just let things play out as they will. If she figures it out… or if she asks me, I won’t lie to her.” Vegeta shook his head slowly and headed for the stairs. “Thank you for keeping her home, Kakarot. Things got pretty insane in the city tonight; we had to a kill a lot of men.”

                “Vegeta… are you alright?”

                The compassion and genuine concern in his only friend’s eyes made the Saiyan prince bite back a scathing remark. “No,” he sighed, “I’m not, Kakarot. But I will be. Thank you for asking.” He started up the stairs, but stopped halfway up. “It was a little too easy to slip back into the old ways, you know. Just slaughter and bloodlust and all that Saiyan rage. Trunks… he kept me grounded.”

                “That’s good, Vegeta. And from what Trunks told me, you did an awful lot of good tonight. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m very proud of what you’ve become, Vegeta.”

                The shorter warrior merely nodded a little without responding, and continued up the stairs to his room, only to stop at the sound of crying coming from across the hall.

                She was crying because of him. Again.

                And Vegeta had discovered that he did not like it one bit.

                The gut-wrenching sobs halted the moment he tapped on her door, and when she cracked it open he nearly confessed everything right then and there at the sight of her utterly miserable face. “Usa?”

                Usagi wiped at her eyes ineffectually; the tears kept coming no matter how hard she tried to get rid of them. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I’ll try to be more quiet, Mr. Briefs.”

                Vegeta stuck his foot in her door the moment she tried to close it, fed up with what in the hell she thought about him at that point. His mate was crying, sad, and broken-hearted, and his beast was downright roaring for him to take care of her. “He’s an asshole,” he said truthfully, pushing the door open to lead her back to her bed.

                Expecting him to grill her with personal questions about why she was crying, Usagi couldn’t help but relax when those questions didn’t come and he sat down beside her. She was even more surprised to feel his arm wrap around her waist, and despite her better judgment she leaned into the comforting embrace. “He **_is_** an asshole,” she finally confirmed with a sniffle. “But so are you,” she added softly.

                “I figured it out,” he rumbled, trying to draw her into any form of conversation that would possibly make her stop crying. “I should have said something sooner, woman. I’m sorry,” he added with a gentle kiss to the back of her neck. “I was afraid you’d be furious. And Usa…? I meant every word, I swear it.”

                Usagi blushed at that and shook her head. “I’m not—I wasn’t—I know,” she finally settled on, letting out a heavy sigh as she thought of how nice it was just to let Vegeta hold her. Her little speech about his random acts of kindness and his being secretly sweet on the inside came back to her, and she suddenly wished that she’d never confessed her love for Prince. She wasn’t stupid; she knew that she was going to have to choose between the two of them, and soon. “It’s a scary moment for me when I realize that you’re likely the only person I can trust… you know? At least you’re so direct that you’ve never lied to me. Prince… he told me that he didn’t know who I was. He lied. But… after everything he’s been through tonight, and on **_my_** behalf… I don’t have it in me to be very angry with him.”

                Unable to stop himself from smiling, Vegeta nodded vigorously. “I saw the news, Moon woman. I already know about the Triads. And just so you know, I’ve found myself having the same thoughts about trust. And yes, it’s very fucking scary,” he finished almost warmly, holding her a little tighter. “Come on,” he said after a while of simply holding her, “time to tuck you in, woman.”

                “V—Vegeta?” She asked timidly as he made her lie down and he drew the covers up around her. It felt awkward calling him by his first name, but it seemed ridiculously formal calling him Mr. Briefs in this sort of situation.

                “What?” He snorted. “You want a bedtime story?”

                Usagi blushed, even though she knew he was joking. “Would you… stay?” She turned even redder when he eyed her curiously. “Never mind, I’m sorry, that’s horribly unprofessional of me to ask,” she babbled quickly, rolling over to face the wall. But then she felt something she’d never expected; the covers drew back for a moment, followed by a hard, warm body snuggling in against her own. “Vegeta?” She whispered in astonishment.

                “Shut up and go to sleep, woman,” the prince grumbled good-naturedly, squashing down his urge to purr as he wrapped an arm around her waist and held her tightly.

                “You know… you don’t have to do this.”

                “Too fucking late. I’m already comfortable,” he chuckled into her hair as he drew in her scent. “Stuck with me until morning, woman.”

                Usagi sighed and relaxed against him, unable to stop herself from thinking about how wonderful it felt to let him hold her like that… like she was the only thing that mattered to him in the world.

                ##################

                Vegeta opened his eyes to the glare of sunlight pouring in through the window and silently sputtered when he realized that he’d overslept for the first time in years. The sun spoke ten in the morning, and he’d meant to be up at six for warm-ups and some light training before a spar with Kakarot around lunch time.

                His annoyance quickly fled however when he sat up—or rather, tried to—and found himself pinned in place by another body. Laying back, Vegeta actually smiled as the memory of falling asleep with Usagi in his arms came flooding back to him, and he couldn’t help but hold her a little tighter and run his fingers through her hair.

                Apparently their positions had shifted at some point during the night, and Vegeta was a little amazed that the movement hadn’t even awakened him. He’d fallen asleep spooning her from behind, but had woken on his back with her head pillowed on his bare chest, one of her arms around him and both of his around her, while their legs were impossibly tangled beneath the blankets.

                For the first time in years he allowed himself to truly relax, and when the urge to kiss her overcame his better senses, he gave in to it while he forced himself not to purr and give himself away as her masked man.

                Usagi started to come to at the sensation of a mouth moving lightly over her own—so lightly that she sighed with pleasure and began to return the kiss despite the little warning bells going off in the back of her mind. And when she felt teeth just barely nipping at her lips and the tip of a warm tongue following up to flick over them, she parted them slightly only to moan at the sensation of that tongue gently running over her own in the most feather light of caresses while a pair of rough hands whispered down her spine.

                The sheer tenderness in that kiss and touch had her gasping softly and pressing tightly to him as her own hands began to wander him just as gently, and when his mouth left her own she made a soft noise of protest until she felt it ghosting down her neck. Usagi let out another quiet moan as that wonderfully hot mouth trailed further down to the hem of her nightgown and a set of fingers just barely brushed over an erect nipple. She felt those lips follow the fingers and kiss her through the silk that covered her, but when she cracked her eyes open to look down at her lover, she froze at the sight of Vegeta worshipping her body with such tender reverence.

                “Do you want me to stop?” He whispered knowingly; he’d felt her stiffen and knew that she’d realized what was happening.

                “We—we need to,” she replied in a slightly choked voice.

                “Not what I asked, woman,” Vegeta answered seriously, turning his face to nip and lick at her other breast through the thin cloth. “Do you _want_ me to?” He repeated.

                Usagi whimpered with pleasure as one of his hands began to tug her gown down her shoulders to expose her while the other was sliding up the inside of her thigh, the questing fingertips of that hand brushing over her curls. “Mr. Briefs, I—we—please,” she begged softly, unable to keep her hips from lifting slightly. Every single touch of his was infinitely gentle, all of them feather-light brushes over her heated skin, and every touch of his mouth at the edge of her nightgown as he eased it further down her body was just as light.

                “Don’t call me that, Usa. You _know_ my name,” he breathed over a newly bared nipple. He blew on it teasingly, and when he felt her shiver and she moaned his name, he rewarded her with a light flick of his tongue. “Now… answer my question, beautiful,” he purred, followed by a tracing of his tongue over the taut peak and a teasing of his fingertips over her outer folds. “Do you want me to stop? Tell me to and I will,” he added gently. “I swear it.”

                “If you’d stop for one minute I’d be able to lie,” she whimpered helplessly, her body moving against his as he slowly parted her folds.

                Then he suddenly stopped, and when she opened her eyes to look up at him, she found him regarding her seriously, his lust and need burning in those hard obsidian orbs. “Please Usa… please don’t make me beg,” Vegeta whispered.

                “V—Vegeta…? I’m… I’m at a very confusing point in my life—“

                “I know that you love him too,” Vegeta replied, carefully choosing his words. “And I should have told you the moment I realized you were Sailor Moon, but I didn’t want to upset you, Usagi. Please don’t turn me away just because I didn’t say anything. And I’m not playing the sympathy card, but you need to know that I never loved another after Bulma. Not until you. Hell, it has to be obvious,” he added with a little grumble. “You’ve even got me saying the damned word. And I only ever said it to Bulma twice in our whole marriage.” He breathed a heavy sigh when he saw tears forming in her eyes, and immediately reached out to brush them away. “I’m not saying this to upset you, _r’sha_. I’m saying it because you need to know just what I’m offering.”

                “What you implied the other night. Not a one-time thing.”

                “Yes. Something permanent.”

                The ridiculous level of naked desire in his voice and eyes as he gazed down at her made her shiver, but she felt a sharp pang of guilt at the thought of Prince. “Vegeta, I’m sorry, but… I can’t give you an answer,” she whispered, darting her eyes to the side as they began to fill with tears. “I… I shouldn’t have asked you to stay,” she realized aloud. “I’m sorry for that… I wasn’t trying to… to lead you on or anything, I promise.”

                Vegeta sagged against her and sighed into her shoulder, but he nodded slowly, understanding all too well that she was ridiculously stressed out and confused. Damn it, he should just tell her. But no, he’d have to do it carefully, and definitely not while she was in such a half-naked, vulnerable state. “I know you weren’t,” he replied soothingly, his hands fixing her gown so she was no longer exposed. “But I want you so badly that it hurts, Usagi. I wish you’d just let me have you. Gods… just for one more day, and I’d be content.”

                With a deep, calming breath, Usagi kissed him gently. “Vegeta… I love you. But I want to be sure, especially if you want some kind of long-term relationship. If I give myself to you again… it’ll be with my whole heart.”

                He nodded in understanding and kissed her in return, his lips lingering longer than hers had only moments before. “Think about it, _r’sha_. Like I said before, I’ll be waiting even if you never make a decision.”

#####################################

                Trunks couldn’t fight the smile on his face when his father and his surrogate mother descended the stairs together, their hands linked like it was commonplace for them to be so close. “Morning, I fixed breakfast for all of us since I got more sleep than anyone.”

                “Usa?” Vegeta asked softly, giving Trunks an unreadable look. “Just so there aren’t any more surprises, Trunks knows, too.”

                “Fucking seriously?” She groaned, slapping her forehead with her free hand. “Who else knows!? The media? The Emperor of Japan!? Tell me now please so that nothing comes back to bite me in the ass, Vegeta!”

                “Just us and Kakarot, I _think_ ,” he chuckled. “Now sit that gorgeous ass down before I make you,” he ordered with a playful slap to her rear.

                “I figured it out when Father called you _r’sha_ a few nights ago. I already knew he was falling for you—oh, don’t give me that look, Father, I know damn well that you love her—and that there was no way he could possibly love two at once. He just doesn’t work that way. So I figured it out while he was helping you wash the blood off. Goku figured it out the same way, just so you know.”

                “Son of a bitch. Even in the old days, I never had so many people figure it out so _fast_. Anything else I should know?” She grumbled as she lit a smoke.

                “We’re ki fighters,” Vegeta offered as he sipped at his first cup of coffee for the day. “That huge fight that happened when you were about ten or so? The Cell Games? That was us, and the future version of Trunks who had come back to warn us in time to fight.” He lifted a single brow when she seemed to take that all in stride.

                “Time travel is something I’m very well acquainted with,” Usagi explained. “But I’ll likely never see my future daughter, Chibi-Usa. Not since Mamoru and I split. We were fated to be the king and queen of Neo Crystal Tokyo. My path went the other way, unfortunately. I became Sailor Cosmos instead, the guardian of the universe, and I destroyed this planet and a few others in the process of sealing Chaos. None of you would remember it of course; I wiped everyone’s memories of the incident and had everyone resurrected, including my Senshi. I had to kill them to use their powers and ascend to Cosmos,” she sighed. “And they all wanted nothing but a normal life, so… I know I’ve explained it to you before, Vegeta.”

                “It’s alright, woman. Get it out if you feel the need.”

                “Wow, Dad. You’ve got it _bad_. You’d normally tell anyone else to just shut the fuck up,” Trunks teased, easily blocking and absorbing a ki blast aimed for his head. “Ah, ah, ah. Not in the kitchen.”

                “Then get in the gravity room and I’ll whoop your ass properly, boy,” Vegeta growled, trying to ignore the soft, feminine giggle coming from his left. “You were saying, _r’sha_?”

                “On a lighter note,” she chortled, “Diamond threatened to hurt three of my Senshi, and I’ve got Piccolo, Goten, and Gohan watching them. That’s where Goten’s been, Trunks. And Piccolo… well, I sort of—“ Usagi was cut off by her own uncontrollable laughter and buried her face in her arms as she shook with it. “Oh my fucking God I’m so glad I can finally share some of this shit with you guys. It’s too funny! Piccolo and I… hehehe… we went out and… hahaha… the silver crystal! It—it—it gave him a DICK!” She only laughed even harder when Vegeta burst in a mad, rolling cackle, slumping in his chair and fighting for air while his son sat on the floor and practically rolled around while he did the same. “And—and that’s not the **BEST PART**! It—it thinks it—it **_fixed_** him, and now I—I **can’t** reverse it! And he’s in love with Makoto! Hahahahahahahaha!”

                “The Namek’s… he’s getting—hahaha! **_LAID_**!? Oh dear fucking Kami, that’s just too fucking much!” Vegeta howled.

                “Not yet!” Usagi yelled, damned close to peeing herself, tears streaming down her face. “But Mako! You should have—have seen Piccolo’s FACE! She was eyeing him like a dog eyes a piece of meat! And he—he RAN!”

                “He’s not gonna know what to do with her when she catches him!” Trunks cried. “I wish I could see his face the first time he busts a nut!”

                That only sent Vegeta and Usagi into more peals of laughter and when she tipped her chair over as a result they only got louder.

                “I’m so glad that you find my… ahem… **_problem_** … amusing.”

                All three of them stopped dead at that, Usagi turning her head to see Piccolo’s shoes from beneath the table. She was ready to pick herself up and apologize, but Vegeta beat her to the punch first.

                “Extremely amusing, Namek. So… tell us. Did you get your dick wet and cry like a woman your first time?”

                Fighting to keep a straight face, Usagi lost it when she sat up to see the Namekian’s face shaded in bright purple, and she abruptly fell back to the floor in a fit of giggles. “Likely she cried! That thing’s **_enormous_**!” She heard Vegeta grunt down at her and just grinned up at him. “What? I had to look when I didn’t exactly believe him! And Vegeta,” she added in a conspiratorial whisper, “he’s bigger than _you_.”

                Judging by the sound of Piccolo chuckling softly at Vegeta’s scowl, all was suddenly right with the warrior-class Namek. “Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on her anyway? What gives?” Usagi said suddenly, sitting up in her righted chair.

                “She was mugged last night. I thought I’d report,” Piccolo rumbled, suddenly very serious. “She’s unharmed,” he added quickly. “But she was pretty shaken up. She even—“ He blushed again and looked away. “She even made me sleep over, she was so upset. I think they were Yakuza, but I can’t be certain since I killed them before I could ask any questions.”

                “Did you call Goten and see if anything similar—“

                “Yes, I did. And yes, Hino Rei was also attacked late last night, just after the fires started,” he replied, careful not to look at either Vegeta or Trunks and give them away since he wasn’t sure what Usagi knew. “She didn’t get off as lightly, but Goten got to her before she got anything more than a few bruises and some scrapes. He’s taking care of her right now…” He smirked at that and rolled his eyes. “…and from what he tells me, she is _not_ a pleasant patient.”

                “And Ami-chan?”

                “Security, led by Gohan, stopped them before they could even get to her and Hotaru. She’s fine, and Gohan escorted them home to be safe. I’m going back now, I just thought I’d alert you. I think Diamond’s paranoid about the hit on the entire Triad syndicate last night.”

                Usagi sighed and rested her forehead on her folded arms. “He’s right to be. Honestly, I think Prince is going to be gunning for him next. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he went into all-out attack mode.”

                Piccolo glanced at Vegeta curiously, and sighed when the prince gave him a brief nod. “I’ll stay with her then,” he grumbled.

                “Oh, don’t act like it’s a death sentence, Piccolo,” Trunks chuckled. “Play your cards right and you might get to sleep with her.”

                “Shut up, Trunks. Unless you want me to bring up your make-out session with Pan in front of her parents,” Piccolo retorted. “That’s right, I saw it when you were on your way back with her to meet Usagi. You practically had your tongue shoved down her throat.”

                “Same for her,” he replied smugly to Piccolo’s back as he walked out the door. “In fact… I’m supposed to be meeting her later,” he added to Usagi. “Whether Goku or Father’s responsible is beyond me, but I’m grateful all the same.”

                “It was Usagi,” Vegeta offered. “She had a word with Videl over the phone and swore to break your dick off if you take that girl anytime soon. You’re not too old for her, but she **_is_** too young, son. You need to take your time with her.”

                “But back home—“

                “ _My_ home, not yours, boy. And that was a different place, a different time, and a _totally_ different set of rules. Sixteen is too young by the standards she was raised with. You’ll wait for me to talk it over with Kakarot and her father, even if Pan gives you the green light before then. Understand?”

                Usagi finally spoke up after a long moment. “You mean to tell me that you’re actually going to discuss Trunks and Pan going to bed… with her father and her grandfather?” She asked incredulously.

                “Sex is a binding marriage among my people, Usagi,” Vegeta sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he waited for the explosion. It didn’t come though, and he found her watching him inquisitively. “Not us. It’s your choice,” he added softly, “since I didn’t mention it beforehand.”

                “Then why is Trunks not married to the others that he’s slept with?”

                Trunks blushed at that and went right back to work on their breakfasts, praying to Kami that his father would drop the subject and move to another topic. But of course, he didn’t.

                “Certain things have to be done during the consummation of a pair-bonding, and I damned near lost it with you the last time and did them. It’s a natural instinct for our people… and frankly, I’m amazed that Trunks didn’t have that instinct take over at some point for him. Probably because he’s half human.”

                “Vegeta… you keep saying ‘our people.’ What are you, exactly? I know most ki fighters aren’t human, so don’t worry about freaking me out,” Usagi added quickly when he looked a little hesitant to say anything.

                “We’re Saiyan,” Trunks supplied, setting plates of eggs and bacon in front of them both, and a fresh cup of coffee in front of Usagi. “Goku crash-landed here as a baby, Usa-momma. Then Father came with a couple others to pick him up twenty years later. That’s a totally different story though,” he laughed softly. “Now, if you two would please stop talking about sleeping with each other in front of me, I’d appreciate it,” he added with a smirk. “You’re warping my poor, virgin psyche. My innocent little ears can’t take much more of this.”

                “Feh, keep it up and I’ll regale you with stories about your mother and I on the gravity room floor,” Vegeta threatened with his mouth full.

                “You’ve called it that twice, now. The gravity room,” Usagi pointed out around a mouthful of eggs.

                “We train under six-hundred times Earth’s gravity,” Trunks answered. “Father’s one of the strongest warriors on the planet.”

                “You… you don’t know The Ghost… do you?”

                “We’re acquainted with him,” Trunks answered smoothly. “Honestly, I found him to be an insufferable prick. And I think he’s gay, too,” he added with a snicker, knowing by the fleeting black look his father gave him that he would pay for it later in blood. “And I personally think that he hits like a girl.”

                “I’ll make sure to tell him that, Trunks,” Usagi giggled.

                “Eh, no need. I’ve said as much to his face in the past.” The recent past.

                _You’re going to eat those words, boy,_ Vegeta said privately with his ki.

                _Bring it, old man._

                _Gladly. You’re just the warm-up I need before taking on the Yakuza tonight._


	16. Chapter 16

“So…” Trunks glanced between his father and Usagi while they both devoured their lunches, each of them discreetly looking at the other whenever one of them was looking away. It was actually pretty cute, the way even his father would blush on occasion whenever he managed to peek at her around the mountain of sandwiches on the table. “…is the party still on for tonight, Usa-momma? I’ve gotten quite a few RSVPs in the last few days and—“

                A loud thunk cut him off, along with a low feminine moan of despair in Japanese. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

                “FUUUUUUUUUUUCK,” she yelled into the solid oak.

                “Glad I already had this covered,” the billionaire-playboy -genius-philanthropist chuckled. “Pan is taking you to pick out a dress, and Father, you’re coming with me to get fitted for a tux.”

                _Have you forgotten what I’m doing tonight, boy!?_ Vegeta yelled at him with his ki.

                Usagi didn’t miss the scathing glare that her boss/boyfriend/whatever was giving Trunks, and she couldn’t help but sigh to herself sadly. She’d actually hoped to see Vegeta at the Christmas Party for once; every year since Bulma had passed, he’d simply holed up in the gravity room. When his wife had been alive, he’d appeared for a few dances with Bulma followed by thirty minutes of wallflowering before he’d retreat to the gravity room for the rest of the night. _I guess it was just too much to hope for a dance or two,_ she sighed mentally.

                Not missing the look on Usagi’s face, Trunks glared right back at his father and snarled. _You **will** be going tonight, and you **will** be dancing with her!_

                “Fine,” Vegeta grunted. “I’ll go change.”

                “All that with a look?” The blonde mumbled as she watched Vegeta leave the kitchen. “Wow. I wish I could order him around like that with just a growl and a glare.”

                “Just pretend he’s me and you won’t have a problem,” Trunks snorted. “You’ve been doing it to me for years, Usa-momma.”

#################################

                Trunks rolled his eyes a little when he found his father sitting on his bed, and the crown prince was doing nothing less than sulking, his arms folded over his chest. “You know, Father… it took some convincing to get Usagi to attend this thing. She always plans it but she rarely goes… I had to threaten to destroy her laptop to get her to take the week off from everything. And Pan called to say she’d found a dress for her and was waiting for Usa to try it on. Pan says that Usagi’s gonna be one hell of a knock-out for you tonight.”

                _She’s always a knock-out,_ Vegeta thought to himself. _The woman could be wearing a potato sack and she’d still get a rise out of the Saiyan in me._ A thought suddenly occurred to him and he frowned. “Don’t the humans usually exchange gifts at these things?”

                “Usagi already took care of the bonuses to the employees and the gifts to the head maid and the butler. She does every year,” he added softly.

                Ugh, yet another thing she’d been doing for ten years that Vegeta was blissfully unaware of. “I meant for her,” he admitted with a touch of embarrassment.

                “I bought her an upgrade for her laptop and I had planned on giving her a nice bonus—“

                “No,” Vegeta snorted. Money was too damned impersonal; she deserved so much more than that after all she’d done for so many people without a thought for her own well-being. He couldn’t believe he was asking for help with something like this, but his son would know better than anyone what the answer would be, and Trunks would also keep his mouth shut. “What would be more… appropriate?”

                “Well… for the kind of work Usagi does, an appropriate gift from an employer would be a large bonus. Maybe some flowers and chocolate,” Trunks ventured slowly, secretly grinning inside at the frown on his father’s face. Gods, it was fun teasing him. “No?”

                “No,” Vegeta said flatly. “That’s too… impersonal,” he finally hedged.

                Was his father actually blushing!? Dear Kami, he would kill for a camera right then to send the photo to Goku, titled “Father’s in love!” Trunks sat down on the edge of his father’s bed and folded his arms over his chest, mirroring Vegeta’s posture. “Well? What’s she interested in?”

                “Work,” Vegeta snorted, “including Senshi business.”

                 “Father… you know you can tell me anything, right?” He asked softly. “And I mean anything. Do you… you know? Love her?” Trunks smiled gently when after a long minute his father gave a single, slow nod. “Does she know?” When Vegeta looked away, his face turning red, Trunks sighed. “Well, at least you told her. I take it she didn’t say it back.”

                When Vegeta spoke, his words came out slowly and he paused frequently, unable to believe that he was actually discussing this out loud with anyone, let alone his son. “You know I want her for my mate, boy. And I know she told you that I said it… or Kakarot did. One of them likely told you. So don’t tease me right now.”

                Overwhelmed by the urge to laugh and groan at the same time, Trunks bit back both impulses and actually slid over and hugged his father.

                “What in Kami’s name, boy—“

                “Shut up, Father,” his son snorted, only hugging him tighter. “What you should do is ask her out, Father. On a **_date_**. Simply dragging her to your bed and—oh, shut up,” he added quickly, when Vegeta opened his mouth to interrupt him. “You want my advice and I’m giving it.”

                “Fine! Just stop… hugging me! You’re making me look soft, boy!”

                Trunks laughed at that and released the crown prince after one more squeeze just to make him growl under his breath. “Well, I suppose it’s a little early at this stage for the gift of yourself, with a big red bow tied around—“

                “Shut. Up. Boy.”

                “Aw, you’re no fun, Father. I was _going_ to say a bow tied around a _diamond ring_.” Trunks flopped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling for a few moments. “Well, a gift you would get a friend would be something they like, but I think you’re past that stage.”

                Vegeta sighed. “I don’t have the slightest idea what she would like besides a computer... which you already covered.” _Maybe a well-maintained sniper rifle,_ he chuckled darkly to himself.

                “You should step this up a notch anyway since you’ve slept with her. Girlfriend gifts. Jewelry, maybe. Clothing’s always nice—“

                “I hate to take the cop-out, but I think I’ll do jewelry. Women like it and giving it implies that you’re in a relationship.”

                “Need help picking anything out?” Trunks offered.

                “No, I have an idea what she might like. Let’s go get fitted for those stupid penguin suits and I’ll find a store while you’re getting yours done.”

#############################

                “What?” Usagi snapped into her phone, knowing by the caller ID just who it was.

                “You hit the wrong gang, dearest.”

                “Oh, so it’s dearest now? After you tried to off me the other day? Fucking bipolar crazy ass mother—“ Usagi hung up at that and growled as she continued to help the head maid hang decorations in the rarely-used ballroom. Her phone rang again and she snarled as she answered it. “WHAT!?”

                “Well, aren’t you chipper this afternoon?”

                “Oh… hey Prince… sorry, I—I thought it was him again… he just called and I hung up on his dumb ass. Though for the record I’m still pretty upset with you,” she added with a huff. “What’s up, though?”

                “Just wanted to… you know. Check up on you. I wish you’d stayed last night, Moon… and I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you sooner. I’ll hang up if you want,” he added after a moment of silence from her end as he perused the jewelry inside of one of the cases in the store next door to the tux shop.

                “No, you’re fine, Prince… I just don’t know what to say, that’s all. I just need some time to think about things. You’re not going on another trip of destruction tonight, are you?”

                “Tomorrow. I have some things to do today, and I thought I’d give my boy a break. Seeing him like that last night… it shook me up a little,” he admitted with a tiny growl. “I’m considering going in alone next time.”

                “Don’t you dare!” Usagi snapped, striding out of the ballroom so she could yell without being overheard. “If you go in alone, Prince, I swear that you’ll never see me naked ever again!”

                “Heh. Make threats like that and I’ll just peek through your window, goddess. I’ve always liked the idea of looking through your bathroom window from the tree outside.”

                “Perv,” Usagi retorted, unable to stop herself from giggling. Two could play that game, though. “So… did you call just to flirt and check on me, or…?”

                Vegeta grinned; he knew just what she was getting at. “What color underwear are you wearing, goddess?”

                “Who said I was wearing any, sexy man? Hell… I just might not be wearing anything at all right now.”

                “Ok, that’s it. I’m on my way over,” Vegeta said quickly into the phone.

                “I was joking!” Usagi exclaimed loudly, laughing hysterically as she sat down at the kitchen table. “Pink. With little white rabbits on them. Matching bra… what about you? Going commando?”

                “Always. All black, other than that. My bra as well, and I’m thinking of switching to one with underwire.” Vegeta grinned when he heard her sweet laughter coming from the other end as he eyed a pair of earrings that looked as if they were made for her. “I wish you’d just let me come over,” he sighed. “I’ve been thinking… and I’d like to tell you who I am, Usagi.”

                “Maybe… there’s this party tonight, and maybe I can slip away for a couple of hours…?” She replied seriously, totally floored by his offer. He was really going to tell her!?

                “I’ll think about it. Maybe tomorrow… when all of this business with Diamond is through. End one thing and start another, goddess?”

                Usagi was distracted by a knock at the door but nodded slowly. “I’ll meet you at the cabin, then. Just call me when you’re on your way. And… be careful, alright? Call me if you don’t take your son.”

                “I will… Safeword, Usagi. I mean it.”

                Click.

                Hanging up his phone and putting it away, Vegeta turned to find the sales clerk blocking the door and smiling mischievously at him. “What, woman?”

                “I have to say, Sailor Moon’s got awfully good taste, Mr. Ghost. Or rather, Mr. Briefs. You talk awfully loud,” she added with a giggle when his eyebrows hit his hairline. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. After all, I’ve already seen Ms. Moon in her civilian form when she stopped a robbery a couple weeks ago. I’m Naru,” she said with a little bow. “And I also have something in the back that I made for her, but I wasn’t sure how to give it to her. You can give it to her as a gift from yourself if you want… you _were_ shopping for a gift for her, right? Not some other woman?”

                The fiery accusation in her eyes made Vegeta shake his head quickly and point back to the earrings he’d spotted. “I thought she’d like those,” he barely managed. Damn it if this woman wasn’t perceptive! Sure, he spoke loud, but most people would have just ignored his phone conversation and would have never in a million years—oh. He’d called her “moon” on the phone, hadn’t he? “Damn it, this woman is making me sloppy,” he sputtered to himself.

                “Oh, relax. You have to admit that it’s nice to suddenly feel like a nervous teenager again, right? Trust me, I know you do, sir. I see that look on plenty of men’s faces when they come in here,” she snickered. “Here,” she offered, setting a black velvet box on the glass top. “Those other earrings are very nice, but these…”

                Vegeta’s eyes widened a little when she opened the box and he nodded slowly. “They’re perfect. How much, woman?”

                “ _Those_ are a gift,” she said firmly, snapping the box shut before setting it in his hand. “However, a matching necklace is something you can pay for if you feel like spending money,” she giggled.

                He thought about that for a minute before speaking. “A ring, too. I have no idea what kind to get her, though.”

                “Whoa… wait. A ring? Like… every day wear? Or…?”

                “I plan on asking her to marry me, yes,” Vegeta confirmed. “Not tomorrow night, though,” he added hurriedly, knowing that she’d heard that part of the conversation. “But I might as well have it on hand when I grow the balls to ask.”

                Naru moved to another case and opened it before pulling out a black velvet display containing several diamond rings. “She’s petite, so you don’t want something that will be so huge that it’ll be overwhelming. Why don’t you get her something that’ll match the earrings? Make it a set.”

                “Ugh… I have no clue,” he admitted with a hint of a blush to his cheeks. “Frankly, I let my boy pick out his mother’s ring when I realized that we weren’t considered legally mated on this planet.” Vegeta let his eyes wander over the base below the velvet display she’d pulled out and suddenly pointed. “That one.”

                “Oh… this one?” Naru confirmed, her hand below the glass. “I guess it could be a wedding ring, but it’s technically one you would give for an anniversary.”

                “Doesn’t matter. That’s the one. There’s three of us, and there’s three diamonds. And it’s not ridiculously huge,” Vegeta said firmly, setting his credit card down on the counter.

                “Three…? Oh, you mean your son.”

                “You mate with a warrior of my people, you marry his entire family, girl. And she pretty much raised Trunks since his mother died,” he added with a frown. “She deserves a lot more than just a ring.”

                Naru dared to give his hand a squeeze, followed by a little smile. “Well, you’ve got the rest of your lives to make it up to her, Mr. Briefs.”

                “Necklaces?” He said quickly, embarrassed by the contact with a woman besides his intended mate.

                “Come over here, I’ve got one that will match wonderfully.”

##############################

                “Aren’t you going to dance?”

                Usagi looked over and blushed at the sight of Trunks, all dolled up in a form-fitting tux that hinted at the muscles beneath it, his hair neatly tied back in a ponytail. “Eh… I’m not much of a dancer. I prefer to watch.”

                “I’ll be damned,” he snorted, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her out onto the floor. “You’re not going to be some wallflower, Usa,” he chuckled when she tried to protest. “Not on my watch.” He firmly took her by the waist and grinned when she kept sputtering protests about needing to check some things on her computer, and finally silenced her by pulling her tightly to him. “I will ki blast that fucking computer if you touch it again before January second,” he chuckled darkly.

                “You wouldn’t.”

                “Oh, I would. And since I’ll be staying here to run the business while Father tries to court you, I’ll totally catch you if you do.” Pleased that pissing her off had distracted her enough, he began to waltz with her while she swore at him under her breath and cursed his name. “See, you’re not a bad dancer at all, Usa.”

                “Oh, you just _suck_ ,” she huffed, blushing at the way all of the hired help was grinning at her. “Kami, Trunks… people are going to think something’s up between us.”

                “You wound me,” he replied dramatically. “You wouldn’t be flattered for everyone to assume that the young, sexy billionaire playboy was absolutely smitten with you? Even Tony Stark would be jealous of my sexy Saiyan ass.”

                “Ugh… no offense, Trunks, but you’re way too young for me. And you’re just not my type,” she said with a little shrug. “No offense,” she repeated.

                “I was just teasing you, woman. God, you take everything so damned seriously. Besides, I think you’d be _much_ better suited to someone else in the Briefs family.” Trunks grinned when her eyes got as big as saucers and she blushed to her toes. “He loves you, Usa. Just accept it and give the man a ‘yes.’ And trust me, I can tell what that man’s thinking just by looking at him; years of living with him taught me that. And he does _not_ stop thinking about you lately. I actually managed to distract him in the gravity room this morning by saying you were just outside. I landed quite a few punches when he turned to the door.”

                “You’re so _bad_!” Usagi laughed. “And you’re such a bad exaggerator. You might have gotten in one punch before Vegeta put you through a wall.”

                “Nope. It was four and a half. Half because he half-dodged the last one. _Then_ he put me into a wall. Totally worth it, though. So, tell me… when are you going to be my mommy, hm?”

                Usagi blushed to her toes at that and looked away nervously. “Trunks, I have to think about it, honey. I can’t just rush into something like marriage… especially when…” She sighed and rested her head on his chest as they continued to dance, oblivious to the stares they were getting from all the guests. “Trunks, I’m in love with Prince, too. It wouldn’t be fair for either of them if I just jumped into a relationship with one or the other without a lot of thought. I’m going to have to choose, and it’s not an easy choice. Your father knows, and I haven’t led him on,” she added softly as she ignored a pang in her chest at the very thought of hurting Vegeta.

                “I know you haven’t, Usa-momma. Father and I talk more than you think. And even if we didn’t, you’re not like that anyway; you’re too damned honest for your own good.” Kami, if she only knew! Trunks tried not to laugh or make a face at the thought of what her reaction was going to be when she found out about The Ghost’s true identity. _Gods, she’s going to fucking **kill** him! I hope to be there for the big reveal… I’m totally taping it!_

                Oblivious to Trunks’s mirth, Usagi fought the urge to cry. “I’m sorry,” she said sadly, feeling like her heart was breaking just a little. She loved Vegeta, yes, but… she was also in love with Prince, despite the fact that he’d lied to her. But he’d tried to apologize in his own way, and Usagi was determined to find him later on that night and forgive him in person, despite their plans to meet the next night. “I need to go make a phone call,” she said softly. She was immensely relieved when the waltz ended before Trunks could protest, and she smoothly extricated herself from him, keeping her pace slow and normal so as not to attract attention when she left the room.

                With a pleased smile, Trunks whipped out his cell phone as he sat back down at a table and dialed his father. “She’s on her way out, Father. I trust you’ll sweep her off her feet… just don’t be pushy. She’s clearly bothered by the whole Ghost issue.”

                “Feh. Great.” Click.

                #####################

                “Running from the people as well?”

                Usagi shut her eyes and counted to ten as she stopped in the living room at the sound of his voice.

                “Is that your ass-kicking dress? To match the suit?” Vegeta added with a smirk.

                She turned slowly and tried not to gape and stare like an idiot at the sight of him; he was well-groomed and dressed in a tux that fit him as well as Trunks’s fit him, and damn if he didn’t look sexier than she’d ever seen him. Usagi swallowed a little before speaking. “No, this is my ‘way too short for my personal comfort’ dress. Pan conned me into it. And you look… **_wow,_** Mr. Briefs. Words don’t do it justice.”

                “Same, woman.” Vegeta nodded to the cushion beside him and lifted his glass. “Drink?”

                “Might as well,” she answered after a few moments of thought, sitting gracefully beside him and crossing her legs at the ankle. “Trunks already made it clear that he’s going to smash my computer if I try to do any work,” she added with a grumble.

                Vegeta barked out a genuine laugh and was still snickering into his glass of scotch when he finally poured her one. “You know I’ve had the same idea for months, now. Glad I’m not the only one. You need to relax, woman. Learn to take a damned break.”

                “But…” Usagi took a long swallow and grimaced as the scotch burned all the way down. “…I don’t even know what to do with myself if I’m not working or fighting,” she admitted. “It’s not exactly easy to break ten years of habit, Vegeta.” When he chuckled and actually smiled at her warmly, she realized she’d called him by his first name and blushed. “Sorry, Mr. Briefs… we’re at the company party so I should be call—.”

                “No, I’d prefer it if you called me that, even in public… in fact, I’ve always hated being called Mr. Briefs,” he snorted. “But well, that’s another story for another time.”

                “Oh? Huh… I didn’t know that, I’m sorry… Vegeta. But don’t expect me to call you anything else in front of the employees,” she added quickly. “In private only… ok?”

                Vegeta sighed and nodded. “Always the professional, aren’t you, woman?”

                Usagi managed a tiny smile and nodded. “And while we’re on the subject of names, Vegeta—“ She squeaked a little when he cut her off by leaning in and pressing his mouth to hers in what, for him, was a chaste kiss… despite the fact that it had her flushed and made her toes curl a little at the skill he showed by simply moving his mouth over hers for over ten seconds.

                “Usagi,” he breathed as he pulled away, brushing his hand over her cheek. “I’ll call you that as long as you stop calling me Mr. Briefs.”

                “Um… uh… sure,” she whispered, eyes as wide as they could get as he leaned back in and brushed his lips over hers. The spell was broken when Vegeta wrapped an arm around her to pull her closer, and she slowly broke away from him. “No. No, no, no. We can’t—I can’t—Vegeta, this is wrong,” she stammered. Usagi drained her glass and stood. “Thank you for the drink, and you have my sincerest apologies for this. I haven’t made up my mind, so I shouldn’t have let it happen.”

                “Damn it, Usagi, no. Sit down,” Vegeta orderly sternly, easily snagging her by her arm and pulling her back down beside him. “I won’t do that again. Just sit, alright? If you think you’re leading me on or something by just fooling around on the couch a little, you’re not.”

                The storm of emotion in his eyes at her rejection made her sigh and nod. After a long awkward silence, Usagi pulled something from her cleavage with a blush and handed it over. “Don’t have any pockets in this dress,” she said quickly when he raised an eyebrow. “Merry Christmas, Vegeta.”

                Wondering what in the hell she could have possibly gotten him for Christmas, Vegeta unfolded the piece of notebook paper and admired her neat script for a moment before grinning at what the words actually said. “Best gift ever.” He carefully refolded and tucked the instructions for making his coffee into his pocket before drawing out a black velvet box and handing it over. “Merry Christmas, Usa,” he said softly, trying not to show how nervous he was about giving her a gift.

                Usagi opened the box and her mouth fell open a little before she snapped it—and the box— shut immediately. “This… um… this—it’s too much, Vegeta,” she said quickly.

                The prince shook his head vigorously when she tried to push the box back into his hand, but when she insisted, her eyes filling with tears, he relented. “I saw it and thought of you,” he mumbled dejectedly. “That was just more of a thank you present… for everything you’ve done.” Gently, he eased the box back into her hand. “Please take it.”

                Usagi sensed that she’d hurt him and sighed a little before nodding, reaching behind her to draw the hair on her neck up in a peace offering. It wasn’t a ring, at least, which was what she’d been fearing… little did she know that that particular matching item was hiding in the bottom of Vegeta’s sock drawer.

                Vegeta didn’t need a second invitation and he lifted the diamond necklace from the box, carefully draping it around her throat before fastening it. Unable to help himself, he bent his head and pressed his mouth to the nape of her neck, drawing in her scent for a moment before pulling away. “Sorry,” he breathed, when she shivered and immediately lowered her hair.

                “It’s alright… and it’s lovely, Vegeta,” Usagi added with a gentle smile. “Thank you.” She couldn’t help but finger the diamonds at her throat while she reflected that it was an awfully fancy day for her. New dress, new necklace, and then the earrings that she’d found on her bed when she’d returned from her trip with Pan. The note had actually made her laugh. It was short, but she’d found herself reading it silently with his voice in her head.

                _Merry Christmas, goddess. And they’re originals by Naru, so try not to lose one. She says thank you for the save the other week, by the way. Now go enjoy the party and I’ll see you tomorrow._

_That damnable safeword,    (and I don’t mean the Namek!)_

_Your Prince_

                Watching her fingers brush over one of her crescent moon earrings, Vegeta knew where she was headed when she stood. “Would you like to maybe head back in?” He asked hopefully.

                “Um… there’s a… friend… that I sort of need to go see, Vegeta. I’m sorry. I’ll be back in a few hours.” Maybe if she called him she could con him into dropping by the cabin and they could talk… maybe he’d go ahead and tell her who he was and she could finally just make up her damned mind. Usagi sighed as she started up the stairs, careful not to trip in her heels.

                _Shit._ Thinking fast, Vegeta yanked a piece of paper from a notepad, and with his Saiyan speed, he jotted down a couple lines, darted out the closest window and flew to her room, where he placed the note on her bed and quickly got out of sight and back into the lower level of the house.

                “Wow, Father. Way to fucking **_move_** ,” Trunks snickered. “I didn’t think those old bones could go that fast.”

                The prince merely plopped down next to his son and sprawled on the couch, letting out a shuddering breath. “Fuck me running, I thought she was going to catch me in the act.”

                “What did you write on the note?”

                “I told her that my phone would be off, that I’m doing recon,” he huffed, gratefully taking the glass of scotch his son offered him. “And to enjoy the party, that I’ll call her when I’m finished.”

                “Nice,” Trunks chuckled. “And speak of the devil…” He gave Usagi his most winning smile when she came back down the stairs, looking every bit as elegant as she could possibly get as she carried a little box in her hand, and he nudged his father in the ribs. “Hey, Usa. Are you heading back to the party?”

                “I guess so,” she said with a tiny shrug. “Sailor Moon got you something as well, Vegeta,” she added with a tiny, mischievous smirk.

                The crown prince blinked as he slowly took the box and understanding dawned in his eyes. “Is it a… tie, perhaps?” He chuckled.

                “Open it and see.”

                Vegeta nearly fell over laughing when he saw the contents and pulled her into his arms for a chaste kiss. “Good luck getting me to _ever_ take them off, woman,” he purred in her ear.

                “That’s why I had three pair made. I didn’t want you running around in the same nasty drawers for the rest of your life,” she countered smartly.

                “You bought Dad… underwear?” Trunks asked incredulously, instantly snatching up the box to take a look. What met his eyes made him blush; yeah, they were just boxers, but what was written on them… “Best Fuck in the Universe? Seriously?”

                “What boy? Getting some cock envy?” Vegeta chortled.

                “It’s an inside joke,” Usagi giggled. “Just ignore our childish immaturity. Now… let’s get back to the party before all the help thinks that I’m having some sort of kinky father-son threesome. I saw the way they were looking at us when we danced, Trunks.”

                “Feh, the two of us combined would fucking kill you,” Trunks snickered. “Would you let two sexy gentlemen such as ourselves escort you back, though?” He asked with a waggle of his eyebrows .

                “Heh, I guess so,” Usagi chuckled, taking his arm when he offered it.

                “Father? You coming?” Trunks gave his father a look that said, “ ** _really?_** ” when the crown prince gave him a glare of naked jealousy, and waved him over discreetly behind Usagi’s back. “Come on,” he mouthed.

                “I guess,” Vegeta grumbled. He offered the focus of his interest his arm, and smiled at her with his eyes when she took it.               

                Escorted by what Trunks had accurately described as ‘two sexy gentlemen,’ Usagi couldn’t keep the color from her cheeks as they led her back into the party. “And I’m back to being a wallflower,” Usagi muttered under her breath.

                “I’ll be damned,” Trunks said flatly. “Make you a deal. Dance with Father and I’ll let you check your email.”

                Usagi was floored by the offer; Trunks knew her all too well and was playing on her weakness. She blushed as she glanced up at Vegeta, who was looking down at her with a hope in his eyes that was so fragile she was afraid of breaking it into a million pieces. “I would have danced with him for the asking,” she said smoothly. It was the truth at any rate. “But you have a deal.”

                “So, were you just blowing smoke up my son’s ass, or would you have really danced with me?” Vegeta snorted as he led her out onto the floor.

                “It would have depended on how you asked,” Usagi replied with a smirk that mirrored his, but she was secretly marveling at how unexpectedly smoothly he was moving, spinning her lazily on occasion before drawing her back in tightly against his chest. “Where in the hell did you learn to dance this well?”

                “Heh, I’ll explain it another day. It’s a very long story, believe it or not.” Vegeta frowned when her eyes looked troubled. “What, woman?”

                “Just… tired of secrets, that’s all,” she sighed. “It’s not your fault, though.” Usagi couldn’t help but melt against him when he tugged her tightly into his arms and continued to dance with her, only now her head was resting over his heart and she could feel his breath in her ear.

                “Anything you wish to know about me, Usagi, simply ask it. I’ll never lie to you, understand me?”

                “And… if I asked you about The Ghost?” Usagi bit down on her lower lip when she felt his eyes close against her cheek and he sighed and tightened his grip on her.

                “I think he should be the one to tell you, _r’sha_ … but I’ll tell you if you insist,” Vegeta replied, using every ounce of willpower he possessed to keep from blurting it out in the ballroom.

                Usagi blushed and inwardly groaned. “No… no, you’re right. And I shouldn’t be asking you questions about him anyway, Vegeta. That’s totally not fair to you. He said he’d tell me… but honestly, Vegeta? Part of me is terrified of finding out.”

                Totally not giving a fuck who was watching, Vegeta turned her face to his and kissed her firmly on the lips. “Whatever happens, happens, Usa. I’ll still be waiting. Come on,” he urged, tugging her off the dance floor. “I want to show you something.”

                “But Vegeta… all the guests…” Usagi turned bright red at the sight of everyone that was grinning and whispering, including Son Goku and his family and friends.

“Hush,” he said quickly, cutting her off. “I just want to show you something that very few people in the universe have ever seen. Pervert,” he teased when she turned bright red and glanced away. “Not _that_ , Usa. Dear Kami, you’ve got quite the delightfully dirty mind. Though I’m sure I could _easily_ arrange that as well,” he purred into her ear.

                Blushing to her toenails, Usagi swiftly shook her head. “Uh… no thank you.”

                “Well, that has to be the most _polite_ refusal I’ve ever received,” he chuckled. “Come on,” he ordered, refusing to take no for an answer as he drug her outside and led her down the hill, away from Capsule Corp and all the lights.

                Usagi shivered a little in the cold until she felt his arm around her waist and a sweet warmth filling her at the contact. “Using your ki?”

                Vegeta replied with a grunt as he took her into a little clearing of trees and firmly sat her down in his lap. “It should be late enough to see,” he muttered. “There,” he whispered after a long wait, pointing upwards. “That blue star. It’s faint, but you can see it… just to the left of Sagittarius.”

                Following his finger, Usagi finally spotted a blue star after squinting for thirty seconds. “Is… that your home sun?”

                “We called it _Sh’dra_. It means ‘the light,’ or ‘life.’ My planet’s been gone for decades, though… it was destroyed when I was a boy.”

                “Sorry, Vegeta… my kingdom was destroyed when I was only fourteen, you know. In my very first life, before I was reincarnated. It’s hard, I know. The moon was uninhabitable after that war. What was your home’s name?” Usagi felt him stiffen a little and turned her head to find a hesitant look in his eyes. “What?”

                He’d sworn not to lie to her, and she’d asked him a question… but surely she’d put two and two together? As if the name “Prince” didn’t make it obvious enough. “Vegeta-sai,” he let out with a heavy rush of air.

                Usagi blinked and felt a goofy grin come over her. “Ok… so was it named after you or vice-versa?”

                “It was named after my father... its king. So was I,” Vegeta finally replied, waiting a little nervously for her reaction.

                No. No way in hell. It was just some stupid, huge coincidence, right? “So you’re… a prince?”

                “The crown prince of Vegeta-sai, yes. Until my son was born, I was the last living member of the royal family… sort of like you,” he added softly as he stared up at the star he would never again see from his home solar system.

                “Hm…” Usagi sighed and relaxed into his arms, letting go of her huge suspicion… for the moment. She’d address it later when she had time to think it over. “Explains where you learned to dance, at least.”

                Vegeta laughed at that and nodded as he pushed her hair to the side to graze his teeth lightly over her partially bared shoulder. He sighed in contentment when he felt her shiver against him, knowing that the reaction wasn’t due to the December cold. Gods, he had said it more times in the last few days that he’d said it in his life, but with only Usagi in earshot, he couldn’t stop himself from reminding her how he felt. “I love you,” he whispered against her skin.


	17. Chapter 17

Despite her promise to herself to think it over later on, Usagi found herself leaning into Vegeta as he kissed her again, melting inside as he turned it up a notch and softly growled with approval at her responsiveness. She was immensely enjoying it, yes… but she was also comparing the feel of him against her, the way he kissed, how he held her, how he touched her. _It can’t be… but…_ Usagi moaned softly as he turned her in his arms so that she was straddling his waist, her dress pushed up to her hips so that his arousal was pressing against her clit through her panties.

                Vegeta felt her break away and knew exactly what was going to come out of her mouth before it did, so he silenced her with another demanding, toe-curling kiss while he pushed down the straps of her dress to bare her for his roaming hands. “Please,” he breathed between kisses, “it won’t… won’t count… swear it… just need… need to be inside of you, Usa… _please_ ,” he groaned once more before tipping her onto her back.     

                Unable to ignore the need thrumming through her own body as she grew more and more sure that he was really her masked man, Usagi answered by threading her fingers through his cropped hair and jerking him down for another kiss as she wrapped a leg around his waist. “Love you,” she sighed as he broke away just long enough to yank off her panties while her dexterous fingers took care of his pants and she shoved them down to his knees.

                They both cried out with pleasure the moment their bodies joined, their hips meeting in a slow delicious rhythm as their mouths mated in time. No coherent words were spoken as Vegeta took her unhurriedly, trying his damnedest to convey with his body how deeply he loved her, bringing her to climax over and over again, groaning into her mouth every time he felt her flex and tighten around his cock.

                Every motion was heaven as Usagi surrendered to him; Prince or not, the man sure as hell knew how to make every nerve ending sing with joy, and she wasn’t about to stop him for all the yen in the world. “Come for me,” she finally panted between kisses, her nails digging slightly into his hips as she felt herself cresting yet again. She’d lost count of how many times he’d given her ecstasy in the thirty minutes that they’d been making love, and she knew she was going to die of pleasure… or explode… or something… if he didn’t finish soon. “Please,” she whimpered as she came, her eyes rolling back to the whites as her vision momentarily went black and her body sang for him. “I’ll pass out if I come like that again,” she whispered hurriedly, clutching at him again as she immediately headed straight into another orgasm.

                “Let me hear it again, _r’sha_ …”

                “I love you,” she breathed, followed by a moan as she came undone once more, her climax intensified by the sensation of him erupting inside of her and slamming in deeply as he announced his pleasure with a loud groan. “Love you,” she whispered again, kissing him tenderly as he slumped on top of her, both of them trembling in the afterglow.

                “I’ve wanted to hear you say that so badly, moon goddess,” Vegeta sighed in utter contentment before claiming her lips passionately once more.

                They rested under the stars like that for another few minutes, simply touching and kissing, their bodies remaining joined as he kept her warm with his ki in the chilly air. But they both knew they needed to get back inside before people started to talk… hell, they already were, and every moment they were gone was only going to make the gossip even worse.

                “Shit,” Usagi half-giggled, half-groaned at the sight of the dirt on her little black dress.

                “Heh… my tux isn’t much better,” Vegeta snorted. “Do that teleporting thing to one of our rooms and we’ll clean up really fast.”

                “Great idea.” Usagi did just that and immediately stripped out of her dress, beckoning for him to follow her into the bathroom. “Strip off the jacket and the pants really quick, I can take care of stains pretty fast with my powers.”

                Doing as he was told, Vegeta marveled as he watched Usagi use her powers over water to cleanse her dress, followed by hot air courtesy of Uranus and Mars to dry it almost instantly. “Not bad, moon goddess.”

                “Why, thank you! My mother always complained that I couldn’t do laundry to save my life, but look at me now!” She laughed as she took his garments and cleaned them quickly. “There, good as new.”

                Freshly dressed, Vegeta picked the grass and a few twigs from her hair before running a brush through the golden strands and proclaiming her ready to go downstairs. “I’ll follow in a few minutes,” he rumbled softly before kissing her once more, wanting nothing more than to drag her to his bed for another round of lovemaking. “Best we aren’t seen returning together.”

                “Hang on… you’ve got sex-hair, too,” she purred as she ran her brush through it for him and removed a leaf from the spikes. “There, all better. See you downstairs,” she sighed, torn between wanting to maintain a professional façade in front of everyone downstairs and wanting to just throw him down onto her bed and stay with him until dawn. “And you’d better dance with me again,” she added with a little smile.

                “Count on it _, r’sha_ ,” Vegeta replied seriously as he adjusted his bowtie and waited a little while before following her down. He found her dancing with Kakarot—or, rather, trying to teach the giant Saiyan warrior _how_ to dance, since she was the one leading. “Try not to break her feet, Kakarot,” Vegeta snorted when Usagi winced and Goku muttered an apology.

                “Hush,” Usagi chastised the prince, giving him a whack on the shoulder. “Son-san can hardly help that he’s never actually danced before. Unless you wanted to dance with me again?” She asked hopefully.

                With a teasing grin Vegeta shook his head. “Nah. I’m cutting in on my boy for a moment. I’ll get you next, goddess.” Keeping his word, he strode up to his son and smoothly stole his blushing dance partner, flashing a triumphant grin when Trunks sputtered in surprise at his father’s effortless cut-in. “Need to have a word with the girl. Go dance with her mother and play nice.”

                He grinned at his quarry when he found her glaring at him in annoyance, even though she was still letting him spin her around on the dance floor. Vegeta had never really noticed before since Pan always dressed like such a tomboy, but since she was wearing a very fashionable gown that showed as much as it revealed, he had to admit that she’d filled out very nicely. “Feh… you look like a girl, girl.”

                “And you look like a gentleman,” she replied tartly. “Appearances can be deceiving, hm? Now cut to the chase, would you? I don’t get any alone time with Trunks as it is without one of my parents breathing down my neck, and you’re cutting in on some of that rare privacy.”

                “You’ll be my daughter in the long run, and you’re on the verge of becoming a Super Saiyan. The first female Legendary warrior. I’ve decided that you’ll train with me every morning from now on,” Vegeta said flatly, his tone leaving no room for argument.

                Knowing all too well how Vegeta treated his training partners, Pan made a face and glanced around for Trunks. “My son also trains with me every morning, you know,” Vegeta added nonchalantly.

                “Ugh… no offense, old man, but my father’s told me plenty about training with you. I think I’ll pass. Besides, you’d just be up our asses and my father would be there to help you annoy the hell out of us.”

                Vegeta barked out a laugh at that and shook his head. “I don’t know how you’ve never noticed, girlie… but your father never ever, **_ever_** trains with me. And I’m positive that my son has expressed his annoyance on more than one occasion over the way I just take off in the morning by myself for several hours at a time to train alone.”

                Pan’s eyes widened a little and she found herself nodding slowly. “So… you’re telling me that I’ll be with Trunks every morning, unsupervised for several hours?” She asked hesitantly. “No worries about being bothered?”

                “Keep that gravity up and I’m positive that you can get quite a workout in several positions, girlie,” Vegeta chuckled. “But let me make one thing clear… if I scent that your virginity’s gone missing—and believe me, I’m full-blooded and so’s your grandfather. Your father’s weak little half-Saiyan nose might not pick it up, but mine will. And if Trunks marks you or you two go all the way… I will kick both of your asses and put you in the tank for a month. Understand?”

                Pan made a face for a moment, but then suddenly smiled. “Is that the _only_ stipulation?”

                “Girlie, anything else is fair game, and there are plenty of entertaining things you can do besides just sex. Your grandfather and I are working on your sire, so just be patient and you’ll get permission to mate when you’re eighteen.”

                “Eighteen!?” Pan whined. “But that’s two _years_! I’m Saiyan, I should be considered an adult at sixteen, Vegeta!”

                “You’re three-quarters human, little girl. If you were half, or subject to the burning, I might agree with you. But since you _didn’t_ suffer the burning just before or after your birthday, you’re still a child by Saiyan standards.” Vegeta grinned, knowing that he had her on that one. “So… would you rather do it my way and wait two years? Or your way, waiting for a burning that will never come? Because if you do it your way, I’ll never consider you an adult or an appropriate mate for a prince of Vegeta-sai.”

                “You suck,” Pan sighed. “Fine. I’ll take my make-out time with Trunks. With gratitude,” she added with a sexy little smile aimed at her future mate, who was dancing with Videl across the ballroom.

                “Ok, I’m cutting in,” Usagi said from beside them both. “Pan, go try and teach your grandpa some rhythm. My feet can’t take anymore punishment.”

                “Told you so,” Vegeta murmured in her ear as he pulled her in close and tried not to purr at the sensation of holding her so tightly. “If your feet hurt I could kiss them and make them better.”

                “Ew. No. No toe-sucking, like ever,” Usagi snorted. “So… Pan looked awfully happy. You give her a green light or something?”

                “More like a yellow caution. Fooling around, but no pair-bonding. Pan will be training in private with myself and Trunks every morning from now on. And since I take breaks to train alone…” Vegeta winked at her when she grinned; she definitely got the idea.

                “You don’t have to train alone, you know. I could train with you,” Usagi offered with only a touch of hesitancy. What if he didn’t want to train with her?

                Vegeta just shrugged. “Sure. But don’t be surprised if you transform and wind up pinned to the gravity room floor. That short-ass skirt distracts the hell out of me even when you’re bleeding out, woman.”

                Usagi sighed and nodded as she just decided to stop talking and enjoy the dance; he was such a graceful dancer that she relaxed into him completely and ignored the looks they were getting from everyone around them. But her feet eventually got tired after nearly an hour and she found herself pulling him towards a table where the Sons were chatting and drinking.

                “I don’t appreciate you pulling rank like that, Vegeta,” Gohan said darkly as the prince took a seat. “Pan’s been training with me for years.”

                “And she’s chafing under your authority,” Vegeta replied smoothly. “I’ve set guidelines that she must abide by. Guidelines that she’s accepted… and she’s old enough to choose her own master, you know. After all, you’d chosen to keep the Namek as yours by the time you were ten, boy.”

                Usagi couldn’t sense ki, but she could definitely feel the rising tension between the two men as Gohan stared Vegeta down. “Gohan… if it makes you feel better, I’ll be training with Vegeta as well every morning from now on, and I’d be more than happy to keep an eye on Pan.”

                “Well, that changes things a bit,” Videl interjected. She wasn’t keen on her quarter-Saiyan daughter mating just yet, but she knew about the hormones that would drive her child since she’d felt the pull for Trunks. “Better to have Pan under Usagi and Vegeta’s observation than to have her trying to sneak off every five minutes, right? At least she’s with someone that I trust.”

                “You, not Vegeta,” Gohan clarified, pointing at the blonde. “And I like you, Usa, but if I find out that my daughter has mated with Trunks in secret, I’ll hold you responsible. Understood?”

                “Watch your tone, brat,” Vegeta snapped, his chest vibrating in a deep warning growl. “That’s my mate you’re threatening.”

                “Drinks!” Everyone turned their heads to find Goku smiling as he started filling glasses, clearly trying to lessen the tension between his son and his best friend. “I think we should all drink to celebrate, don’t you? I mean, it’s a couple years out, but we’re all going to finally be a family, right!? We should be _happy_!”

                Standing up to help him serve the glasses, Usagi beamed. “Goku-san is absolutely right. This should be a happy occasion, so you two little beasts stop all of that childish posturing, understand me? Goku’s getting an extra grandson, Gohan’s getting a son, and Vegeta’s getting a daughter. So _smile_!”

                Vegeta and Gohan both grumbled but drank when Goku toasted the couple—who were oblivious to it, still dancing across the room—but Vegeta nearly spit his drink out when Goku slapped him on the back. “Damn it, Kakarot, what gives?”

                “Well, I was thinking!” Goku laughed happily. “Since Trunks will be my grandson, that will make you my son, Vegeta! Isn’t that neat!?”

                The prince’s drink really did spit out of his mouth at that, and he found himself the victim of much pounding on his back from several sources as he tried not to choke. “I’m _older_ than you, Kakarot!” He finally sputtered.

                “Feel free to call me Daddy,” Goku replied smoothly, a light in his eye that spoke of his inner beast at work. “If you’re a good boy, maybe I’ll take you out for ice cream after the party!”

                “Your beast is a real fucking piece of work, Kakarot,” Vegeta snorted, still trying not to cough. “Fucking smartass.”

################################

                “Eat this,” Vegeta offered with a smirk, sitting half a senzu on the table in front of her. “It’ll get rid of the hangover and give you some energy. I ate the other half,” he added with a grin. “I haven’t drank that much since… gods…” Not since he’d been in service to Frieza. “A **_long_** fucking time.”

                Usagi took it without question, chewed, swallowed, and laid her head back down on the table. She then immediately moaned when she felt his fingers expertly working over the nape of her neck, easing knots she hadn’t even been aware of carrying. “Thank you,” she sighed happily.

                Vegeta merely grunted, working around the diamond necklace still circling her throat. He was extremely pleased to see both it and the earrings still in place; he’d chosen all of them with the intention of them being elegant enough for evening wear, but inconspicuous enough for everyday wear if she chose to keep them on. And she simply looked stunning in them, hungover or not.

                Usagi jumped at a knock on the door and looked up at him suspiciously. “Don’t tell me we’re training after all that partying last night?” They had to be for someone to be visiting at six in the morning. “Come in,” she called when Vegeta nodded.

                “Heya!” Goten chirped brightly, beaming at the sight of Vegeta still massaging Usagi’s neck with a nonchalance that suggested he’d done it several times. So, apparently Trunks and his dad were right; this was too awesome! “Dad’ll be here in a minute, Vegeta; he’s bringing Pan. Where’s Trunks at?”

                “Here,” the lavender-haired Saiyan grumbled from the doorway to the living room. He smiled gratefully to his father when he flipped him a senzu bean. “Just what the doctor ordered. Instant hangover cure. You get one, Usa?”

                “Uh-huh,” she yawned, keeping her head still while Vegeta moved to her shoulders. “So… what are we doing? I’m pretty sure I’ve never trained like you guys have.”

                “You’ll see,” Vegeta grunted. “As soon as Kakarot gets his ass moving, anyway.”

                “Mmmkay… hey, wait a second. Goten, what in the fuck are you doing here? You’re supposed to be watching Rei!”

                With a sheepish grin, his hand going behind his head just like his father’s, Goten nodded. “I am, actually. My inner beast got a little too frisky while I was nursing her injuries from the other night… and well… she got kind of mouthy and shit kind of got out of hand… challenging the beast and all… it’ll do that.”

                “Oh, BULLSHIT!” Trunks said quickly, jerking Goten over so he could bare his shoulder. Sure enough, there was a bite mark and it was extremely fresh. “You took a mate before I did!? Oh, that’s so not fair!”

                “You slept with my Rei-chan!?” Usagi squeaked out, absently pushing Vegeta’s hands away from her neck as she stalked towards the youngest male Son. “And you’re not covered head to toe in burns, either? Holy shit… I don’t know whether to hug you or beat the shit out of you.”

                “Heh… nope. No burns. Just a lot of marks on my back from where she dug her nails in when she was coming,” he purred as he stretched and took a seat. “And I must say, I feel awfully nice and relaxed this morning despite the massive lack of sleep. Once I got her motor running she turned into a real wildcat.”

                “Ugh… I’m not even processing all of this right now, Goten… it’s just too fucking early.” Usagi sat back down and rested her head on the table once more, sighing happily when Vegeta went right back to her neck and shoulders as he sipped his morning coffee. “I see you made it this morning.”

                “Directions were perfect, woman. Best gift ever.”

                “I’m enjoying the sight of the other gift even more,” Usagi admitted with a tiny blush, remembering their night out under the stars and the two hours she’d lain in bed, drunk as hell, going over every little detail that matched him up with Prince. She was officially seventy-thirty on the matter; the fact that she’d never heard Vegeta purr or Prince say the L word were the two major factors against, but there was an awful lot of details—besides the way they both made love—that had her nearly convinced that they were the same man.

                Vegeta chuckled and fought down the urge to wiggle his ass a little; if all of the boys hadn’t been in the room, he would have just to make her laugh. “They’re a little tight, though, I must admit.”

                Usagi got a nice eyeful as he turned towards the table and swallowed in an effort not to drool. “Mmmhmmm… in all the right places, too.”

                Just noticing the exchange now that his hangover was fading, Trunks visibly gagged. “Kami, Father! Go put some clothes on! You’re practically falling out of those things!”

                “That was the point,” Usagi chortled as she enjoyed her morning coffee along with her eye candy. “I must say… very, _very_ nice, Vegeta.”

                “Whoa! Nice boxers, Vegeta!”

                Usagi and Vegeta both turned their heads to grin at Goku, who was reading the underwear and laughing. “Why thank you, Kakarot. A very beautiful woman decided that I deserved some sort of trophy for being the best lay in the universe.”

                “Oh, so it’s actually true, then?”

                In a ridiculously good mood, Vegeta actually winked. “Why, Kakarot? Curious? Maybe thinking about making your wife’s suspicions come true?”

                Usagi had to pick herself up off the floor she was laughing so hard, while Goten and Trunks blushed and grumbled about their fathers both being horrible perverts. “If I ever switched teams, Vegeta, it’d be for you,” Goku laughed as he poured himself some coffee. “So… in other news… Piccolo will not be joining us this morning.”

                “Huh? Why not?” Goten asked. “What’s up?”

                “Well, I thought he could use a _little_ nudge,” Goku snickered, “so I called him before the party and told him there’d been another attack at the shrine, that you were fine and had handled it, and that we wanted him to stay put until further notice. So he’s sleeping over at Mako’s again… hopefully he’ll get laid.”

                “Oh my fucking God, Goku… really!?” Usagi buried her face in her hands as she cackled maniacally. “Oh, poor, poor Piccolo. Mako’s going to eat him alive. Shit, I should call him and tell him that—“

                “Nope!” Vegeta said quickly, smoothly snatching her phone from her hands. “Let the Namek get some ass, damn it. Maybe it’ll loosen him up a little.”

                “But—“

                “No ‘buts,’ woman. You gave the man a cock, now let him discover why having one is so awesome,” he chuckled. “He’ll thank you for it later.”

                “Fine, I won’t call him. Gimme my phone back. But I swear to God that I’m claiming total ignorance like a coward and blaming the two of you for everything if he finds out that there wasn’t an attack.”

                Her phone rang in Vegeta’s hand and he grimaced at the sight of an unknown number. “This your secret phone?”

                “Yeah, let me see it,” she sighed. “Yeah?”

                “I’m surprised your little boytoy didn’t attack us last night. I had everyone on high alert and ready to retaliate, you know.”

                Usagi’s deep scowl and the fire of righteous anger in her eyes told everyone in the room just who was on the other line, and the Saiyans all visibly bristled at the feeling of her ki rising on its own. “Prince works on his own time, Diamond. And besides… anything you brought to play wouldn’t have come close to being enough to take him on. He’s going to wipe the fucking floor with you.”

                “Too scared to face me yourself, darling?” Diamond chuckled softly. “I’ve never known you to hide behind a man.”

                “Not hiding… just honoring a request from a friend. He asked me to lay low and take a vacation for a week. I’m doing as he asked.”

                “Friend, my ass. I know very well that you’ve been sharing his bed, Serenity… when you should be in mine.”

                “Ew. Gods, _no_. If I haven’t made it clear enough yet Diamond, let me spell it out for you. I find you vile. Absolutely disgusting, in fact. And the thought of even _looking_ at your tiny little prick makes me want to vomit up everything I ever ate in my entire life. And trust me, that’s an _awful lot_ of food, considering how much I stuffed my face as a teenager. I _hate_ you, I think you’re a revolting piece of filth from the depths of Hell, and if you ever make another advance towards me or threaten my girls, I will go Cosmos on your ass and turn you into dust. _Goodbye_.” Usagi shut off her phone after she hung it up and turned to find Vegeta missing. “Where’d he go?”

                “He went to change; he was about to yank the phone out of your hand and start screaming at that asshole. Pity he had to leave, he really does have quite the nice ass,” Goku said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

                “Now we know where we get our gay bromance from, dude,” Goten snorted at Trunks.

                “Oh hell, no. We’re not even _near_ as gay as our dads. Shit, those two are a bottle of wine away from a spar turning into rough sex.”

                “Hm… who do you think would be on top?” Goten wondered aloud. “Sometimes I think it would be your dad, but then I see mine when his beast is climbing the walls and know for a fact he’d fuck the shit out of Vegeta.”

                “Are we really having this conversation?” Goku and Usagi asked at once.

                “No, they were,” Trunks replied simply. “Now we’re expanding on it. And I think you’re correct, Goten. Your father would fuck my father’s brains out. Dad is the uke. Goku’s the seme.”

                “You’re both wrong,” Goku said with a tiny smirk. “Vegeta and I are friends, and friends learn to share. We’d trade off.”

                “What he said,” Vegeta grunted as he walked back in. “Enough of the ‘who’s the gayest’ debate. I have shit to do. We’ll reschedule the spar for later.” With a possessive nip to Usagi’s lower lip, he pushed her back down into her seat. “You stay here. I’m going to find The Ghost and give him whatever help I can.”

                Oh, bullshit. He was The Ghost and she knew it. Well… she was pretty sure she did, anyway. And she knew that the two of them would _never_ work together if they were actually separate people. They’d be too busy comparing each other’s dicks and squabbling over the rights to her precious goddess vagina. Usagi would let the ruse continue, though. Vegeta would tell her when he was good and ready; probably later that night. “One of you call me before you do _anything_ , understand me?”

                The moment he was out the door Usagi shot Trunks a black look and pointed towards the exit. “You’re not going to cover his ass?”

                “Dad already used his ki to tell me to stay here and keep an eye on you. Sorry, but when Father gives an order in **_that_** tone of ki, I fucking follow it. Besides, he won’t be alone.”

                “Goku… answer me… do I _look_ stupid? Because I sure as hell feel like you boys think I am. Vegeta is Prince. Yes?” It took nearly a full minute of her staring down the three Saiyans before Goku let out a long rush of air and nodded slowly. “Then he’s not going to have company when he goes in. Which means there’s no one to watch his back. Diamond is crafty as hell, guys; Vegeta is going to need someone there that can help him if he gets in a jam.”

                “Father works alone unless it’s with Goku,” Trunks supplied. “The other night was an exception. He needed someone to help with the sheer quantity of gang members. He asked Goku first, but Goku refused since he doesn’t like to kill.”

                “So you’re the friend he was talking about,” Usagi muttered absently. “Ok. Fine. I’ll transform and go.”

                Goten stopped her in mid-sentence when she began to speak her transformation line and shook his head vigorously. “No, Usagi. You have to understand where Vegeta is coming from; it may seem dumb and misogynistic to you, but this is his right as your mate. His duty, too. Saiyan warriors protect and take care of their women, and it would be downright insulting for you to show up, no matter how good your intentions are. It would be like saying he wasn’t good enough for you.”

                “Goten’s right,” Trunks added when Usagi looked like she was going to protest. “I’d be doing the same thing for Pan, whether or not she could take care of her enemy on her own. It’s just the way that Saiyans process, Usa-momma. Let him do his thing… he’ll likely just be putting a plan together and doing recon until this afternoon… and if you get really worried you can call and check in on him. That might annoy him but it won’t insult him.”

                With a heavy sigh, Usagi rested her forehead on the table and sighed. “Alright. We wait. But don’t think for one minute that I like this at all.”


	18. Chapter 18

The waiting had made her crazy with worry, and while Vegeta had answered both phones up until that afternoon, it didn’t make her feel any better. Especially when she tried calling again near suppertime and he wouldn’t answer either of them. She tried again right after and found them both to be turned off.

                “He’s probably about to go in, Usagi,” Goku said gently, trying to give her some sense of peace over the matter. “Just wait. Or cut on the news and watch the carnage, maybe.”

                “No,” she sighed, rubbing at the bridge of her nose, then her forehead.

                Trunks had seen this coming and handed her two pills from the bottle he’d brought down hours ago without her knowledge. “Here, Usa-momma. Take these and take a nap. If anything big happens on the news I’ll wake you up.”

                Sleeping would be the best option and she knew it. It was either that or suffer the mother of all migraines. “Alright,” she sighed heavily, taking the pills from Trunks and swallowing them with a mouthful of the juice Goku offered her.

                Usagi didn’t protest the sensation of hands on her shoulders and neck, massaging the muscles gently, and she actually chuckled as she laid her head down on the tabletop. “You know, you have your father’s hands, Trunks.”

                “Eh, not your type, remember?” He snickered, pushing her hair out of the way for better access. “Besides, I don’t have an Oedipus complex.”

                “Wouldn’t you have to kill your father for that?” Goku laughed. “Hell, you wouldn’t even have to blind yourself, Vegeta would do it for you.”

                Usagi and Trunks’s heads both turned and they stared at Goku in surprise. “You’ve read Oedipus?” Trunks asked incredulously.

                “Vegeta once gave me a volume of the Greek classics and myths as a joke,” Goku replied with a little smirk. “I’d never picked up a book in my life and the prick thought it was funny, so I read them all just to shove it back in his face. The story of Eros and Psyche was my favorite.”

                “Heh, you’re such a big old softie, Goku,” Usagi giggled into the oak beneath her face. “Of course you’d love the romantic stories.”

                “Well, at least that one didn’t make me cry; it had a happy ending… for the most part. I also liked the myth about Hermes stealing all of Apollo’s cattle and tricking him when he was only an infant. Reminded me of Goten and Trunks, actually.”

                Usagi giggled again, then yawned a little as she checked the messages on her phone for the millionth time. Still nothing from Vegeta.

                “Come on, Usa-momma. Bedtime. I’ll even tuck you in,” Trunks offered, scooping her effortlessly out of her seat and cradling her in his arms.

                “Hm… thought I’d never see the day when it’d be _you_ carrying _me_ to bed and forcing me to nap,” she murmured into his chest. “My little Trunks… all grown up…”

                Wow, those pills were already making her super-loopy if she was getting sentimental. “Yup, all grown up, Usa-momma… but I’m still your little Trunks-kun,” he purred into her hair as he set her down in her bed and covered her up. “Good night, Momma. Love you.”

                “Love you too, Trunks-kun,” she sighed, out cold almost as soon as her eyes were closed.

                With a worried look, Trunks left her room and checked his own phone before going downstairs and cutting on the news, hoping for any word on what his father was up to. There was nothing of note on the screen, which worried him even more. “Goku, do you sense Dad’s ki? I can’t seem to pinpoint it.”

                “No, I already checked. But he could be masking it so that none of us can sense him and try to butt in,” Goku chortled. “Stubborn dumbass… but hey, that’s Vegeta for you.”

                ##########################################

                Usagi answered her superhero hotline with a bit of a huff; damn it, she was having such a good dream! “Yes?” She asked sleepily.

                “Hey, moon goddess.”

                “Hello, my sexy prince. I’m hoping that this is a victory booty call?” She giggled, noting how low and husky his voice sounded on the other line.

                “Whatever you want to call it,” he replied hoarsely. “Can you meet me now, moon goddess?”

                “Sure,” she sighed. “Even though you woke me up. You owe me something spectacular for this, Prince, despite the fact that you were fighting to defend my honor. The cabin again?”

                “No,” he said flatly. “Meet me on top of the Yakuza building. And make sure Piccolo doesn’t follow you this time, damn it,” he added with a huff.

                Her mouth already open to respond, Usagi shut it immediately and paused at the alarm bells going off in her head. “Sure… I’ll make sure _the Namek_ stays put,” she replied slowly.

                “Good, I want you all to myself, goddess. You know how much I love you,” he added softly.

                She was already reaching into her subspace and transforming wordlessly as she kept him on the line, and her pride be damned at such a time, she was taking backup. “I love you, too,” she replied, hoping to Kami that he understood that she meant it. “I’ll be there in just a few minutes, love.”

                “See you then.”

                “Piccolo!” Usagi screamed as she dropped to the ground outside her window, not even wondering why he wasn’t with Makoto. “Prince has been captured; we need to go _now_!” She totally ignored the Sons and the way they were running towards her, the only thing she was focused on was the Namek rushing her way from the fence line. “Come on, I can teleport us!”

                “Wait!” Goku yelled, suddenly disappearing and reappearing at her side. “We’ll go with you if he needs help.”

                “Goku!?” Sailor Moon exclaimed. “But you’re… you’re blonde!”

                “Uh… yeah. Long story, we’ll explain later, Sailor Moon.”

                “How do you know he’s been captured?” Goten asked as he walked up.

                “We have a safeword system. If one of us is captured and forced to draw the other in, a certain word is said in the conversation. And he said the Namek’s name.”

                “My _name_ was the safeword?” Piccolo grumbled.

                “It’s something he never says,” Usagi replied, ignoring the snickers. “He also said ‘I love you,’” she added in a whisper.

                All of their eyes went wide at that one and they immediately stopped laughing. “We need to go **_now_** ,” Goku said seriously, suddenly furious at the thought of Vegeta actually being forced to call in Usagi. If he was actually being forced… Kami it was **_bad_**! “If Prince really said _that_ , and in front of someone, he’s on death’s fucking door.”

                “Precisely,” she whispered. “Grab hold of me, boys. We’re going to teleport.” The moment they’d gotten a grip on her, Usagi took them right to the rooftop, and no surprise, they were surrounded by hundreds of guns, all pointed at their heads. “Ah, joy. The welcome wagon.”

                “Guns won’t hurt us, Majesty,” Piccolo rumbled, “we’re too fast for that. Shall we?”

                “Silent Wall,” she whispered, surrounding herself in a shield. “Go nuts, boys.”

                The chaos erupted in less than a second, and Usagi was still fighting her third Yakuza when Goku suddenly materialized out of nowhere and laid him low, grinning savagely. “All done.”

                “Holy shit,” she whispered, surveying the damage. Every enemy was unconscious or dead, and all in less than two minutes. And she noted the amount of those that sported nearly identical marks to the sides of their heads, just like the one lying in front of her. “You probably should have just killed them, Goku.”

                “Not that I won’t,” Goku stated seriously. “It’s just that I’d rather not.”

                “Well, either way, that was an awesome display of speed. I think you may be faster than Prince.”

                “No, not when he powers up,” Goku chuckled. “I’m stronger than him, but Prince is definitely faster than me.” He followed her towards the door of the rooftop and stepped in once she’d cleared the corners with the gun she’d scooped off the floor of the roof.

                And then he stopped dead as he felt himself revert to his normal form, his ki forced down drastically. “What the hell?” Goku blinked and turned to find his son the same, and it dawned on him. “Ki dampeners. That’s how they caught him…”

                “Go back,” Usagi whispered. “Go back _now_.”

                “Not a chance,” Goku growled. “I’m _not_ leaving him here, and I’m not leaving you by yourself.”

                “She’s right, Dad, we’d only be a—“

                “NO!” Goku shouted, turning on his youngest son. “We don’t leave _anyone_ behind, you understand me!? Especially _not_ him! You wouldn’t leave Trunks, and I won’t leave him! Come on,” he added a little more calmly, despite the tension on his face. Goku was downright livid, something that didn’t happen often, and Piccolo and Goten wisely kept their mouths shut. “We’ll still have our speed if not our power. Just try not to get shot… now that we’re not bulletproof.”

                “I’ll take point,” Sailor Moon offered, pushing ahead of them as she set the rifle to semi-automatic. She was put on edge when every corner they turned was suspiciously clear, and finally stopped to pull out her phone and dial Prince.

                “Well… hello my darling,” Diamond drawled from the other end. “I’d been hoping to simply have you escorted to me by my men, but I see you saw through my plan and brought back up.”

                “Where is he?” Usagi snapped.

                “Oh, he’s here. Alive. And annoying. I must say, Sere… this one’s got quite the mouth on him. Do you like that sort of thing? All that cursing and insulting? I had always pegged you for more of a lady, my dearest.”

                “I only like it when I’m sucking his cock,” Usagi deadpanned. “So sorry you’ll never get to enjoy the experience, Diamond. I’m quite spectacular at it, from what I’ve been told.” She smirked up at a camera when she heard him growl on the other end. “Oh, I’m sorry? Does that make you jealous? The thought of my lips wrapped around some other man’s—“

                “Enough!” Diamond shouted into the phone. “You’re mine, Serenity, and you always have been!”

                “Oh, bullshit. I was Endymion’s in your time. I was Mamoru’s when you travelled back, and now that you’ve returned, I belong to Prince. Just face it, Diamond. You’re not man enough for me,” she said with false sweetness before hanging up on him.

                She turned to find Goku and Goten grinning at her. “That was wicked,” Goten snickered.

                “And you’d better remember your words when Vegeta brings them up. I guarantee you that he heard them, and saying you’re his is not something taken lightly amongst our kind,” Goku added with a laugh. “Oh, you’re **_so_** in for a pounding when we free him.”

                Usagi swallowed, her eyes a little wide at the thought. “Good to know. What exactly did I just say…?”

                “Oh, I think we’ll leave it to Prince to explain all of that to you,” Goten said brightly before pointing. “He’s that way, I just felt a tiny flicker of his ki.”

                “Good thing I didn’t tell you to go back,” Goku said, “because I can’t sense ki that low anymore.”

                “It’s ok, Dad. You can’t help being such a beast.”

                “Piccolo?” Usagi asked softly.

                “Not a chance,” he grunted. “I’m not going to leave a man behind. Even if we’re not exactly friends.”

                “Alright, just thought I’d give you an out. Come on,” she sighed, leading the way in the direction that Goten had pointed. It wasn’t long at all before they came across a few guards, but before she could even pull the trigger, Goku and Piccolo had dispatched them so fast that she couldn’t even follow their movements. “I’ll never get used to how fast you boys are.”

                “Not fast anymore,” a sad voice sighed from the doorway.

                Usagi blinked as Sapphire came into view, frowning deeply, his eyes betraying his distaste for this entire ordeal. And even more disturbing was the fact that her companions were all bound with blue bands from head to toe, struggling fruitlessly against the magic. “I thought you were on my side in this, Saph.”

                “I’m on Diamond’s side, Serenity. Just as I always have been and always will be. But it doesn’t mean I have to agree with his orders. I just have to follow them,” he huffed. “He’s waiting for you inside. Your friends will not be harmed, I promise.”

                “LET ME GO!” Goku raged, his eyes and hair flickering to that of a Super Saiyan in his anger. But the flare of his ki was dampened just as quickly and he continued to writhe against the bonds in vain.

                “Just stay put, Son-san,” Usagi whispered with a shake of her head. “If Sapphire makes a promise, he keeps it. I’ll be back in a moment; Diamond couldn’t even hope to match my powers… especially when he’s made me this mad,” she added quietly. 

                Sailor Moon’s eyes swept over the next room, noting that there was no exit but the one she’d come from, but she ignored Diamond when he approached her. She had eyes only for the bleeding masked man bound before her, sitting in a wooden chair and staring up at her with a mix of emotions in his eyes. “My Prince.”

                “My dearest,” Diamond drawled, “so good of you to join us. And how polite of you to address me so formally.”

                “I wasn’t talking to _you_ ,” she whispered dangerously, her hand flinging out to send him flying with a burst of power. She’d caught him totally off-guard, and Diamond crashed into the wall, snarling and cursing at her as he landed, his hand extending to retaliate.

                The burst of power was absorbed with a purple glow as her Silent Wall took the blow, and she slowly focused on her attacker when her absently thrown counterstrike was blocked. “You’ve gotten a little stronger.”

                “So have you, precious,” Diamond wheezed.

                “No. I’ve gotten a lot stronger, Diamond. Don’t sell me short. I only choose not to transform into Cosmos for my own reasons… and I suggest you don’t push me to do so. Release Prince,” she ordered, and stopped just in front of a shimmering barrier. Usagi tested it with her fingertips and flinched at the shock to her hand; the power flowing through it was very potent and she wasn’t getting through it unless she chose to transform. “Release him and we both just walk away.”

                “My ass,” Vegeta growled from behind his bandana. “I’ll rip him limb from limb before that hap—“ He was cut off by his own cry of pain as Diamond silenced him with a shock from the barrier. “AH! You butt-fucking son of a bitch!”

                “Gods, this one talks far too much,” he drawled. “And he has a tendency to become overly cocky at imprudent times.”

                Fists clenching and tears stinging her eyes at the sight of Prince’s pain, Usagi flew at him in a rage, so intent on beating the living shit out of him that she didn’t even bother using her powers. But all of her punches and kicks were expertly blocked, and in the end she was thrown to the floor with an elbow to the gut. “Let him go, Diamond. Please don’t make me do this.”

                While she was still cradling her injury and lying there, Diamond entered the barrier to stand beside Prince, who was still trembling from the aftereffects of the onslaught of pain. “No, my dear. It’s too much fun forcing you to submit. And it’ll be that much sweeter when you do. Ah, the thought of having you wrapped around me willingly,” he sighed happily, “I simply cannot wait for that day. What was it like, my friend?” He directed at Vegeta. “Was she the ferocious little wildcat that I suspect she is? Or was she soft and submissive?”

                “You couldn’t handle her, trust me,” Vegeta snorted. “She needs a _man_ , not some fruity little fag like you.” He grit his teeth and tried not to shout as his back bowed in response to the dark electricity flowing through him, but the cry of pain left his mouth anyway, drawing Usagi to her feet to throw herself at the wall between them. “NO!” He yelled, when she immediately screamed and hit the floor. “USA!”

                “I’m fine,” she whimpered from the ground, the moon on her forehead shimmering momentarily into an eight-pointed star.

                “Hm… he said your name, my love. So… he knows who you are?” Diamond asked curiously. He smiled when she nodded, and he looked curiously to the bound warrior beside him. “Something in your eyes tells me that you don’t know who he is, though. How very unfair and untrusting of you, my friend,” he said to Vegeta. “Perhaps we should enlighten her? After all, this would be the perfect opportunity to reveal your identity to her, wouldn’t it? Why don’t you tell her?”

                “I’ll tell her when we get out of here and you’re bleeding at my feet,” Vegeta growled. Despite the pain he knew would come in retaliation, he smirked at the other prince with every ounce of Saiyan swagger he could muster. “And then… I’ll take her to my bed and claim what’s mine _. Especially_ after what she said on the phone,” he added with a chuckle her way.

                Usagi would have swallowed and trembled a bit at the look of sheer possessiveness in his eyes—she’d seen that look enough to know that she was in for an all-night session of being dominated—but he was screaming in pain before she could react to his words, and the sight of his agony made her shriek in pure rage.

                The eight-point star was steadily flickering back and forth from her usual crescent moon when Diamond halted his magical attack on her lover and savior, and Usagi was panting heavily as she fought down the transformation that was threatening to overtake her. “I don’t think I’ll let him get his way,” Diamond chuckled, his hand reaching for the bottom of the bandana.

                Vegeta truly began to struggle at that, his eyes wide with horror at the thought of how Usagi would react to his identity. “No, damn it, NO! NOT YET! SHE CAN’T— shit,” he finished with a rush of air when he felt the black cloth flutter onto his chest.

                “Oh, you’ve got to be fucking shitting me,” Sailor Moon muttered, smoothly acting as if she hadn’t already known. “ _Seriously_ , Vegeta!?”

                “I was going to tell you,” he managed, sounding only a little contrite. “Damn it, you got my note, woman.”

                “Urgh… I swear… if I didn’t have bigger fish to fry at the moment, Vegeta… “ She mumbled in frustration. “I’ll deal with you later,” she growled at him.

                Her anger only made him smirk, since he could also see the banked desire in her eyes, along with a mix of several other emotions he wasn’t quite ready to place. “Looking forward to it, my goddess.”

                “You would,” she grumbled, blocking out everything but the fact that she needed to get them out of there immediately. She could feel Diamond powering up, using her perceived distraction as a chance to strike, taking advantage of the fact that she likely wouldn’t be paying attention while she was reeling over the identity of the man she’d been sleeping with for weeks. Thankfully for her, she’d known about it for hours.

                She was ready for him when he struck, lashing out with his magic, and she shifted to Cosmos in an instant and without hesitation, her features flowing from gold to silver and her energy level skyrocketing. Cosmos deflected the power with a swipe of the Space Sword that appeared in her hand, and she smiled coldly at Diamond when he hit the floor. Striding right through the barrier as if it were nothing more than water, she sighed and shook her head. “We’ve played this game before, Diamond. You try and overpower me, try to use my weaknesses against me, and I wind up attaining a high level of power just before I grind my boot heels into your nutsack. What a fun little cycle.”

                “Where’d you get that?” He asked a little nervously, pointing at the sword.

                “Oh, this old thing? Glad to hear that you know what it is… and which Senshi it came from. I’m sure you’re also aware of what she was capable of… and what she taught me.” Cosmos easily absorbed and returned another wave of power from his third eye, and strengthened the barrier with her own power just before he flew into it.

                Diamond let loose a cry of agony as the power of Jupiter flowed through him, shaking him as he began to smoke from the electricity flowing through his body. He twitched, his muscles convulsing, and a dark stain spread over the front of his pants when Cosmos finally released him, her silver eyes glittering icily.

                “Seems you’ve unleashed the monster lurking inside of Usagi,” Vegeta remarked dryly, not even sure if their adversary could hear him.

                “Yes,” Cosmos whispered, “he has. Which is why I’ve said countless times before that I detest this form. It is without emotion of any kind, Vegeta. Devoid of anything about the woman you know. I am Cosmos, the goddess of the stars and the bringer of justice. I am _not_ Usagi.”

                “Not just in appearance, then,” he replied seriously, slowly eyeing her from head to toe.

                “No. I am only her warrior side and nothing more. Now… to free you while he’s still passed out,” she said idly, her boot heels clicking on the tile as she approached him.

                “Wait,” he grunted, before she could cut the magical bonds around him. The Space Sword stopped in mid-swing, and he smiled up at her when she merely lifted a silver brow and waited. “While I’m still stuck in a life or death situation, I thought I’d say the ‘L’ word.” Vegeta deflated a little when there wasn’t even a flicker of emotion in Cosmos’s eyes, and he sighed; this really wasn’t the woman he wanted for his mate. “No matter which form you’re in, my goddess, I still love you,” he said earnestly.

                “Tell Usagi when I detransform,” she replied tartly, slicing his bonds in one smooth motion. Cosmos studied the room and used her powers to survey the entire building, and after a minute or so of concentration, the ki dampening spell fell… and a loud cry sounded from outside the room. “NO!” She shouted, throwing up a hand to shield Sapphire from the pounding he would likely endure at the hands of Goku.

                “WHY NOT!?” All three of them snapped at her from the other room all of them with fists raised as they stood over a cowering Sapphire.

                “Because I said so,” she replied simply.

                Piccolo stepped into the room first and turned a lighter shade of green at the sight of her, immediately kneeling before Cosmos and bowing his head. “I meant no disrespect, Majesty.”

                “I did,” Goku said simply as he merely eyed her and leaned against the wall in wait for the barrier around the wooden chair to drop. “I wanted to beat the shit out of him. Still do.”

                “Sapphire is an ally and friend, however misguided he may be. He’s simply loyal to his brother. Leave him alone.”

                “Thank you, Majesty,” Sapphire sighed as he stepped in, wisely tiptoeing around the Saiyans and finding a spot against the wall. “What are you going to do with my brother?” He asked heavily. “I’d ask you to release him, but I fear it’s a little late for that.”

                “It is. But it’s not too late for you, Sapphire. I suggest that you go ahead and leave; you wouldn’t want to see this.” Cosmos sighed when Sapphire’s mouth formed a hard line and he shook his head vigorously, stepping towards the barrier. “You’d have me release him.”

                “Despite his crimes against you, Lady, yes. He is my brother, and I can’t help but love him. I… I offer myself in exchange. Free my brother, and I’ll take his punishment in his stead.”

                The Queen of the Stars shook her head and huffed in distaste. “Of course you’d know just what to say to try and change my mind, Sapphire.”

                “Oh, you can’t be serious!?” Vegeta raged at her as he got in her face. “You’d let the fucking pervert go!? Just because his brother asked nicely!?”

                “No… because his brother loves him. Clearly there is some good in Diamond somewhere if he can inspire love from someone, Vegeta. Sapphire… do you love your brother enough to make a vow never to follow his orders ever again, should they be on the wrong end of the moral compass?”

                “I can and will do whatever you wish, Lady. So long as you spare my brother,” he replied sincerely.

                “Then you’ll take responsibility for him. I’m stripping him of his powers, but I’ll leave you yours. Once your brother is healed up and out of traction, you will leave the country. You, of course, will be allowed to contact myself since I count you as a friend, but if Diamond makes contact with me for any reason I will kill him. And you as well, Sapphire. Please don’t make me kill you.”

                “You have a deal, Majesty, and I thank you for your mercy. But… if I may ask a question?”

                Cosmos smirked knowingly while the Saiyan beside her and the ones behind Sapphire were obviously fighting the urge to grin, their power levels rising. Even Piccolo looked mildly amused as he did the same. “You may.”

                “Why would my brother be in traction?”

                “I am through dispensing my form of justice. It is time for the Saiyans to proceed with theirs. And the Namek, too, of course. Don’t kill him, and don’t permanently damage him in any way,” she added to Vegeta. “I’m taking my leave for now… I’ll need a couple hours to… calm down,” she finished slowly.

                “You need me, _r’sha_?” Vegeta asked with true concern.

                “No,” Cosmos ground through her teeth in her first show of emotion as she felt herself transitioning back into Sailor Moon. “Just leave me be, Vegeta.” The star on her forehead flickered out and was replaced by the moon, but before her hair could change as well, she was gone.


	19. Chapter 19

Usagi came out of her light doze the moment she felt a pair of arms winding tightly around her, pulling her snugly to a bare, chiseled chest. And her reaction wasn’t a happy one, either. “What!? You think you can just come in here and get some ass because you’re—“

                “Shut up!” Vegeta snapped, his good mood instantly shattered. “Damn it, woman, I’m _exhausted_! Fucking your brains out is the last thing on my mind at the moment; I just thought I’d come sleep with you!” He relented, sagging against her the moment he watched tears filling her bloodshot eyes. Apparently this wasn’t her first crying session for the day, and with his luck, it wouldn’t be her last. “I was also worried about you,” he admitted softly. “I meant what I said, moon goddess… and if it’ll solve everything, I’ll willingly say it again.”

                “While it’s nice to hear, it won’t solve this,” Usagi sighed, wiping at her eyes. She was no longer feigning that she hadn’t known it was him, she was simply angry as hell that he’d gone out on his own and nearly gotten himself killed. “Just get out, Vegeta. Leave me alone.”

                “No.”

                That one simple word had her turning and swinging blindly in her anger, and to both their surprises, she broke his nose.

                “OW! DAMN IT, WOMAN!”

                Usagi froze in mid-swing, her arm drawn back for a second blow, and after a moment she let it drop to the bedcovers. “Ugh… damn it, Vegeta. Come here,” she grumbled, pulling his blood-covered hands from his face. Without even hesitating, she set the cartilage and bone and used her light to heal it. “Go wash up,” she ordered.

                When the water in the bathroom cut off and he returned, he found her as he’d left her. She hadn’t even bothered to put any clothes on in his absence, and the sight made his beast roar at him to take her despite his exhaustion, to make good on her words over the phone. “So much for being the last thing on my mind,” he grumbled, huffing at the sight of his own arousal. “I don’t suppose an apology by way of a dozen… or two… mind-blowing orgasms is going to solve this, either.”

                Usagi rolled her eyes and laid back down, covering up. “Not even tempted, Vegeta. Now go away.”

                “No. You’re mine. You said so. And by Saiyan law, that gives me every right to your bed, and you to mine,” he replied seriously.

                “I’m Lunarian; I’m not Saiyan, Vegeta!” Usagi yelled, chucking a pillow at his head.

                The prince easily caught it and tossed it back to her, only to catch it again when she threw it at his balls. “No, you’re not. But I am, and I’m also bigger and stronger than you,” he pointed out with a grin as he climbed in on the other side of the bed. “Ah, ah, ah,” he chastised, catching her elbow as it came flying back. “Go to sleep, woman. I won’t put the moves on you,” he promised, snuggling up to her tightly. Vegeta sighed as he breathed in her scent, every bone in his body melting into utter relaxation at the smell, and he happily didn’t fight the urge to purr when it started up. “That L word, my moon goddess.”

                Usagi didn’t have any words for that, but she linked her fingers with the hand idly stroking her stomach and sighed, closing her eyes before letting his purr lull her to sleep.

###################

                She woke slowly to find him running his hands over her without aim, simply touching and exploring her, and while she was still angry with him, she closed her eyes and enjoyed it. She was still half asleep anyway and didn’t have it in her to argue just yet; she might as well just relax and relish what he was doing.

                Usagi murmured with pleasure as his calloused fingertips trailed down her bare side, back and forth, then slid down to brush a pink nipple until it became a tight little bud, then on to her flat stomach. She only cracked open her eyes when they stroked her curls, but his hand was moving on to her thighs before she could formulate an order in her mind for him to stop. She sighed when he moved to her back and traced her spine and her neck, and arched slightly into it when she felt his mouth making a little trail over her shoulder.

                “You awake yet?” He whispered, followed by a light nip to the porcelain skin. Gods, he wanted to just bite down and take her from behind until she was screaming his name… but no, he’d give her time and let her make the decision. He owed her that much. When she mumbled something incoherent, he chuckled and rolled her onto her stomach and straddled her waist, ignoring his own rock hard erection as he began to massage her back.

                “Dear Kami,” Usagi groaned, melting into the sheets beneath her.

                “Thought I’d wake you in a good mood, woman. It seems that every time we wake in the same bed we wind up screaming at each other… or simply having _some_ sort of argument. That stops now,” he purred. “We can argue after breakfast. But I want my mate happy when we’re in bed, damn it.”

                “Vegeta, I’m not—“

                “Nope. Uh-uh. Shut up. No arguing,” he ordered, each statement coming out every time she opened her mouth to contradict him. When Usagi tried to speak a final time, he flipped her onto her back and kissed her soundly, growling softly in the back of his throat as his tongue delved between her lips and his hand bunched in her hair.

                Usagi couldn’t help but moan helplessly and arch into him as she felt him pressing into her folds, his lips practically bruising her own with the intensity of his kiss, but when she gripped his hips and offered herself silently, he stopped.

                “No,” Vegeta gasped, breathing heavily. “I… I didn’t mean to… promised I wouldn’t…”

                Floored by his sudden display of restraint, Usagi simply blinked up at him. “Where is my Vegeta, and what have you done with him?”

                “Hn… I like the way you said that, Usa,” he chuckled into her hair. “Even though it makes me sound like a woman in my native language. My Usa,” he sighed happily, drunk on her scent. “All mine.”

                “I didn’t know what I was saying,” she grumbled.

                “Doesn’t matter; you said it. You gave my inner beast claim over you,” he whispered contentedly, now bending his head to her shoulder once more, kissing and licking the spot as his purr kicked up a notch. “Want to bite you so badly,” he breathed hoarsely. “It’s so damned hard to resist it, Usa.”

                “Bite me?” She asked in surprise. “Whatever for?”

                “Mark you as mine,” he rumbled, so fixated on that one spot that he could hardly think through the red haze clouding his mind. “My mate… say yes, Usa… gods, please say yes. Ask me to take you.”

                Despite how stunned she was by this new information, the sheer desire in his voice had her burning for him and a fierce, warm arousal was pooling low in her belly. Fuck it, she wanted him, and she’d be insane to resist him just because she was still a little upset with him. She’d deal with it all later and simply lose herself in him for a few hours. “Without the bite, yes,” she breathed, her hands pulling at his hips once more. “It can’t count.”

                Vegeta groaned and nodded as he slid his lips to her throat and feathered them over a spot he’d discovered as Prince, a place that always made her fight for air and curled her toes whenever he let his stubble tickle it. He sank into her when her legs went around his waist and she rocked her body against his, and the growl that came out of his mouth mingled with her soft moans of pleasure when he began to move. “Say it again,” he ordered hoarsely. “I want to hear you say it when you know what it means, Usa.”

                “No biting,” she reminded him, followed by a whimper as she drew closer to climax. Kami, he felt so damned good that she wondered in the back of her mind how she couldn’t have known before the other night. Sure, she’d only slept with him twice as Vegeta before that, but those encounters had been so mind blowing that there should have been no mistaking Prince as anyone else.

                And if she’d been making love with Vegeta just then without knowing he was Prince, she would have definitely realized it was him. And then probably beaten his ass. She was broken from her thoughts as he nodded and moved a little harder in reaction to the sounds of pleasure coming from her, and she whispered what he wanted to hear so desperately. “Yours, Vegeta. I’m yours.”

                Vegeta’s eyes rolled back at that, and he barely managed to hold back long enough for her to tighten and announce that she was coming with a loud, wordless cry. Then he was spilling into her with a low groan, his hips flexing erratically as a soft fire ripped through his veins. He slanted his mouth over hers once more as that warmth continued to ripple through the both of them, then finally collapsed, barely catching himself on his elbows in time to keep from crushing her. “Mine,” he choked out.

                “Wow, I’m a little proud of that,” Usagi whispered into his chest. “I don’t think I’ve made you come that quickly since the first time.”

                “Woman, that’s just the beginning,” he chuckled softly, sliding his hand between them to stroke her.

                “But—“ She sighed when his purr escalated to the point that the bed was vibrating a little and his lips cut her off. “Stuff,” she managed weakly when he broke away, unable to really think when his fingers were circling and stroking her clit. “Lots of stuff, Prince… need to… do lots of… stuff…”

                “No,” he purred, “the only thing you need to do today is **_me_**. You’re taking a few days off from life as you know it, woman.”

                “But…” She squirmed and arched into him a little as she felt him stiffening inside of her once more and his mouth descended to her shoulder. “It’ll count…”

                “If you want it to,” he groaned softly, raking his teeth slowly over the exposed flesh before nipping it lightly. “Gods… I want it to count, Usagi… yes, goddess… just say yes… let me have you…”

                “Need… need to think, Vegeta… please stop and… and let me think…”

                It surprised them both to no end, but Vegeta’s beast fully took over and he froze, panting heavily as he nodded against her shoulder. “You’re right,” he breathed. “You need to choose… I won’t force a pairbond on you, _r’sha_. How… how much time do you need?”

                Grateful that he’d stopped, Usagi ran her fingertips down his back soothingly and felt the rest of her annoyance with him simply wash away. “I don’t know, love… I really don’t know. It’s the same as marriage and… I don’t know if I’m ready for such a big change. You know that I’m a creature of habit, Vegeta.”

                “Keep your habits,” he grunted, “just add me to them.” When she sighed and seemed to be deep in thought, he withdrew from her body and kissed her gently. “I’ll be training in the gravity room until you decide, woman. It **_is_** a big commitment, so take whatever time you need. I’ll always be waiting for you, moon goddess.”

                “No,” Vegeta whispered, rolling off the bed when she tried to pull him back to her. “If I so much as do more than kiss you, I’m going to lose my shit and I’ll wind up marking you.”

                Usagi nodded at that and sighed. “I’ll have an answer for you tonight, Vegeta.”

                ###########################

                Vegeta had left quickly, but Usagi didn’t find the house empty as she thought she would; the kitchen and the day room were full of Saiyans, and they were all wearing various pleased expressions as they laid eyes on her. “Someone seemed pretty upbeat when he left,” Goku mused aloud. “At least, as upbeat as he ever seems in front of all of us.”

                “I don’t see a mark, though,” Trunks pointed out.

                “Your father… he’s giving me some time to think it over,” Usagi admitted quietly.

                “You love him, Momma. What in the hell’s the problem?” Trunks asked in annoyance. “I fully expected both of you to come downstairs marked.”

                “I… uh…” Usagi blushed and shook her head, glancing around at all of the Saiyans in the room. “I do love him, but… a marriage proposal is a big deal, Trunks. And… it wouldn’t look right, you know? Your father and I being together… I mean, I’m his assistant, Trunks. It would be scandalous. People would be calling me a gold digger and all sorts of horrible things.”

                “Huh. I never took you for someone who gave a shit about what others thought, Usagi,” Goku interjected.

                “But—what about the maids I work with every day, and Bryan, the butler? I mean, they’re the closest thing I’ve had to friends ever since—“ Usagi teared up a little at that, dearly missing her Senshi. Ami would tell her to think logically about this. Rei would tease her, but that would be alright because it was her way of showing she cared. Mako, Haruka, and Michiru would threaten to beat Vegeta’s ass into the ground if he ever hurt her. Usagi smiled as she thought of Minako; that particular Senshi would be giving her tips on how to better suck his cock while proclaiming him the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. And Hotaru and Chibi-Usa, being too young to understand, would think it was all terribly romantic and that she should run off into the sunset with him immediately.

                “Since when?” Trunks asked gently.

                “I’m sure you’ve noticed that I haven’t had any Senshi with me since I was about twenty-one?” Usagi smiled sadly when he nodded. “They died for me, in a final battle that decided this world’s fate, and I had them all reborn without their powers or their memories of being Senshi. The only thing we ever wanted in life was to be normal, you know. So I gave it to them. And I retained their powers as Sailor Cosmos. But I rarely use them,” she added softly. “Yesterday… it was the first time in a long time since I became her. I hate Cosmos more than anything in this universe.”

                “You know, Usa… they’d want you to be happy. Your new friends do, too.” All of the Saiyans nodded at that and gave her a smile. “Especially my father. And anyone that really knows you wouldn’t dare think badly of you for getting with the boss. It’s love between the two of you; real love. I haven’t seen my dad get that look in his eyes since Mom, and it’s nice to see the way he looks at you.”     

########################

                “I thought I’d find you here,” Usagi sighed from the doorway.

                “I was trying to give you some extra time,” Vegeta muttered from the bedside. “Trunks said you were having a hard time coming to a decision, and I didn’t want to seem… pushy.”

                “I won’t stop being Sailor Moon,” she stated firmly, getting right to the point. “I’m not going to settle down and become some sort of Saiyan baby factory like Chi-Chi or Videl. I’ll continue to try and finish cleaning up South City either way, but… I’d rather do it with you at my side, Vegeta,” she finished in a near-whisper. “You and I… we make a pretty damned good team.”

                “In more than just battle,” Vegeta added, “we do, Usagi.”

                “Would you ask me to stop fighting?” She asked a little nervously. “Because if you would, I’d… I wouldn’t want to, but… I’d have to walk away.”

                “The mate of a Saiyan prince was always one of the strongest female warriors on Vegeta-sai,” Vegeta answered with a proud little smirk. “And I’ve seen a lot of those woman fight. You…? You’d whoop most of their asses and rub their noses in the dirt afterwards.” Usagi saw the tenderness in his eyes when he turned his face to look at her, even if it didn’t translate to the hard line of his mouth. “Your aptitude as a warrior is part of you, woman. And I want all of you,” he stated seriously. “Not just the parts of you that are convenient in a wife.”

                “ _Damned_ good answer,” Usagi whispered in surprise. “You know, everyone keeps telling me how you’re not too good with words, Vegeta… but I think they’d be shocked as hell at some of the shit that comes out of your mouth.”

                “Feh. Don’t you dare go and ruin my reputation, woman. I’ll flatten you if you repeat any of this to Kakarot.”

                “Aaaand… he’s back,” Usagi laughed. After the sound of her chuckles died down, however, they were back to a slightly awkward silence. “So… what now?”

                “Come here,” Vegeta said easily, waving her over to the bed. “Just sit with me for a while.” He couldn’t help but sigh happily as she complied and he wrapped an arm around her, bending his face to bury his nose in her hair.

                “There’s that noise again,” Usagi snorted. “Purring alien warriors. It sounds like a bad anime.”

                “With tails,” Vegeta chuckled into the golden strands. His chuckle became a snicker when he felt her look up at him in astonishment. “Mine got cut off in a fight years ago. Kakarot and Gohan, too. Trunks’s was removed at birth, since Bulma wanted him to be more normal.”

                The level of disdain dripping from his voice at that last sentence made Usagi blink. “Would you like yours back?” She asked curiously.

                “Of course, it’s the mark of a true Saiyan warrior,” he huffed. “But it would seem stupid as hell to waste a wish on the dragonballs for—“ Then suddenly her meaning hit home, and he found her smirking at him patiently. “Can you do that?”

                “Probably. Let me see,” she said lightly, tugging up the back of his shirt. “So… _that’s_ what that scar’s from.” Usagi stopped when she brushed her fingers over it lightly and he groaned. “Dear Kami, Vegeta. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it would hurt,” she said quickly, immediately cradling his head to her own. “Forgive me, I’m sorry.”

                “It didn’t… **_hurt_** ,” Vegeta choked out, leashing his inner Saiyan. “A warrior’s tail is extremely—“ He swallowed when her hand touched the spot again. “—sensitive.”

                “Ah. And the scar is the same, I take it,” Usagi finished for him, unable to stop herself from teasing that spot gently, outlining it with her fingers.

                “Woman, you need to stop that,” Vegeta rasped hoarsely, clutching at the bed sheets beneath them. “It’s turning me on so badly that I won’t be able to rein it in.”

                “Alright, alright,” she laughed softly, holding her hand above it. “I need to touch for this, though. So just hold still for me, Vegeta. And this may hurt a little… but I don’t know for sure.”

                Vegeta nodded his consent to let her try, and the moment he felt her light flowing into the scar, his head rolled back and he moaned her name. “ _Usa_ … gods, Usa… no, it’s not hurting me,” he managed when she looked at him in concern. “Quite the opposite.”

                “Oh… well then, go right ahead and enjoy it,” she replied sweetly, grazing her fingernails over the furry nub that was springing from the scar. When he moaned again and began to tremble, she bent her head to his throat, her fingers now petting the fur of the growing appendage, and she stroked her tongue over his pulse. “I’d love it if you could come for me like this, my prince.”

                “Dear gods, woman,” he replied, his voice coming out sounding like a whimper. He was actually very close to doing just that, and when her mouth moved to his bare shoulder and bit down lightly he lost all control.

                Usagi practically purred at the sound of his pleasure, moving her free hand to the tent in his pants to ride out his climax as he clutched her to his chest tightly and gasped for breath. “You’ve got your tail back,” she said softly after another minute. “I wonder if that’ll work for all of—“

                “If you think for even a moment that I’m letting you do **_that_** to any other Saiyan, you’re out of your fucking mind, woman,” Vegeta snapped. Then he smirked as he felt his tail swishing back and forth behind him, and he tested his dexterity with it by wrapping it around her waist and dragging her down onto the bed with it.

                “Don’t make me regret giving you that thing back,” Usagi snorted, her eyes dancing with laughter.

                “Oh, you won’t,” he swore, his voice holding a promise of nothing but pleasure for her. “In fact, you won’t _believe_ the things I can do with my tail, woman.” When she looked up at him nervously, opening and closing her mouth a few times as if she wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words, he backed off a little. “You alright, woman?”

                “I… what… aren’t we—“ Usagi licked her lips and eyed  the very faint circular scar on his shoulder, her fingers reaching up to trace it.

                “Oh. _That_ ,” he said, his lips twitching up in a smile. Vegeta lay down beside her and pulled her tightly to his chest, his arms joining his tail as they wrapped around her tightly. “You’re _sure_ about this?”

                Usagi nodded a little, gripping his hair lightly as he nipped at the spot through the cloth while he slowly unbuttoned her shirt. “Are you?” She countered after a moment.

                “Positive,” Vegeta replied without a hint of doubt.

                “Only fools are positive, Vegeta,” Usagi said dryly.

                “Then we’re a perfect match,” he grunted, running his hands through her hair. “And I wanted…” He actually blushed as he sat up on his knees and dug in his pocket. “It was years before Bulma ever made me aware of the human way of doing this, and I thought that… if you want…” Vegeta shrugged, more than a tad embarrassed as he pulled a black velvet ring box from his pocket.

                “Is that…?” Usagi sat up and gaped a little as he opened the box and simply held it out.

                “Marry me.” It wasn’t even a question; it was a flat order, one that only Vegeta could give in such a gruff voice and still have a chance at a ‘yes.’

                If she’d been witnessing the proposal in third-person, Usagi would have been laughing her ass off at Vegeta’s method of asking for her hand, but instead her eyes were filling with happy tears and she was diving into his arms, wrapping herself around him and kissing him senseless. “Of course I will,” she breathed once they’d broken away. Usagi felt the cool white gold slip around the ring finger of her left hand and glanced down at it. “Vegeta, it’s lovely. And it’s absolutely perfect. One stone for each of us.”

                “Exactly why I picked it out,” he breathed against her lips. “Please tell me you won’t make me do that damned human ceremony, though. Well, I take that back. I know that papers will have to be signed. I just don’t want all that… _stuff,_ ” he sputtered. “Even if it’s a genuine royal pairbonding, all of that extra shit’s a fucking _headache_.”

                Bending forward and tracing her tongue over the shell of his ear, Usagi began to unbutton his pants and tug at his shirt. “I’ll be happy to do that part the Saiyan way,” she whispered. “And then just a small civil service… may I at least invite some people?”

                Vegeta’s jaw twitched a little; Bulma had thrown an enormous church wedding, and a ‘few’ people had turned out to be over a thousand. “How many is a few, woman?”

                Usagi blinked and did a quick count in her head. “I don’t know… maybe seven or eight?”

                Vegeta’s eyes couldn’t have gotten any wider, even if someone from Clockwork Orange had pried them open with one of those headset devices. “Hundred?” He choked.

                Shaking with laughter, Usagi could only shake her head and hold up eight fingers. “Single digits, Vegeta, I promise! Omura-san and Naru outside of family. Then Goku, Goten, Gohan, Videl, Pan, Trunks, Piccolo… and maybe Mako and Rei if they’d like to come…? She added with a hint of a frown. “That’s actually eleven, but… gods, what if they get their memories back?”

                “Then you’ll have your friends at your side once more, goddess,” Vegeta replied as he lazily flicked the buttons loose on her blouse. “Would that be so bad?”

                “I… I don’t know. I’d have to think—“ Usagi was cut off by a powerful kiss and gasped, the action of opening her mouth giving his tongue access to hers. And when he finally pulled away, her head was spinning from the pheromones his tail was emitting as it swished around behind him. “Talking too much?” She whispered huskily.

                “Yes, moon goddess… you are. Worry about the details of all of that later and just let me claim you, already.” Vegeta kissed her once more and slid her blouse off before tossing it to the floor, and his beast suddenly focused only on her shoulder, nuzzling it, licking and kissing it as he unhooked her bra. He heard his mate gasp as his teeth grazed over it while his thumbs stroked over her nipples, coaxing them into hard little buds. “Don’t worry, it’ll feel good,” he groaned, “it won’t hurt.”

                Usagi nodded, her lips beginning to roam up and down his throat, all thoughts of her Senshi fading from her mind for the moment. “Do it,” she whispered in his ear. “I love you, Vegeta.”

                With a little possessive growl, he bared his teeth and bit down lightly at first, his chest beginning to vibrate in a loud purr. Then he heard her moan those same four words again and his beast fully took over, his lips curling back once more before he truly sank his teeth into the porcelain skin of her shoulder.

                At the flash of pleasure that immediately laced through her, Usagi arched into him, her moan hitching in her throat as she was filled with a fuzzy, warm, compliant feeling and wanted nothing more than to let him have her, to join their bodies. “Need you,” she breathed softly.

                Knowing full well the effects of marking her, Vegeta simply nodded as he cleaned the wound with his tongue, his hands moving to bunch her skirt up at her hips and slide her panties down her legs. “And you’ll have me,” he replied tenderly. “As much as you want, Usa.” He chuckled as she began to impatiently tug at the buttons on his pants. “Don’t worry, woman. We’ve got all night, and I have more than a few things to teach you about Saiyan stamina.”

                “You’re so full of yourself,” she snorted, smirking in triumph as she freed him and slid the jeans down.

                “And in a moment, you’ll be full of myself, too,” he teased.

                “Quite full,” Usagi agreed at the sight of him, hard and ready. He slanted his mouth over hers then as he entered her slowly, his beast purring at the sound of her whispering something softly in her native language.

                “Is that what you wanted, Usa?” He breathed against her lips, flexing himself in and out of her at a lazy pace. This was no hurried coupling so that they could get back before either of them were missed; this would be slow. He’d savor her, take his time, and show her just how much of an attentive mate he could really be when properly inspired. “What you needed, _r’sha_?”

                “Don’t hold back,” she whispered, leaning up to nip at his shoulder, overwhelmed with the insatiable urge to bite down as hard as she could. “I want all of you, Vegeta.”

                Purring even louder at the sound of her words and a loud moan of pleasure ripping from her throat, coupled with the way she was tightening around him, the Saiyan prince fisted a hand in her hair and held her mouth to the corded muscle of his shoulder. “Bite me, Usagi… bite me and be mine…”

                “I’m _yours_ ,” she whispered, “all yours, my prince.”

                “Then bite me, my goddess… gods, I love you, Usa…” Vegeta’s eyes rolled back to the whites when she bit down just hard enough to bruise, and he clutched at her desperately. “Don’t tease me, woman,” he groaned loudly, thrusting into her just a little harder as his beast really began to take over in his desperation to complete the pairbond.

                Drawing his face down to hers, Usagi kissed him gently, her eyes shining with love as she opened them again and returned her mouth to his shoulder, “I love you,” she breathed over the scarred, ruddy flesh. “And I’m yours, Vegeta.”

                The next bite broke the skin, and Vegeta threw his head back and roared with ecstasy as he came violently within her. The force of it and the sensation of his pleasure through the bond spurred on her own rapture, and Usagi dug her nails into his back, whimpering helplessly as she sucked at his mark and fluffed her fingers through the base of his tail.

                They basked in the nirvana of the afterglow for a good long while, Vegeta’s purr filling the room. No words were needed then; they could both feel the other’s strong, undiluted love pouring through the bond as they kissed and tasted their fresh marks and sighed happily in unison.

                Usagi found herself dozing later on, wrapped tightly in his tail and his arms after a much longer bout of lovemaking, and slowly opened her eyes to look up at him. “Vegeta?”

                “Hm?”

                “You’re making me take a vacation still, right?”

                Rolling his eyes, the prince huffed and nipped at her shoulder. “Woman, you are not getting on that fucking computer tonight, understand me?”

                “I didn’t mean that,” she chuckled. “What I meant was: I still have that key to Omura-san’s beach house, and if you maybe wanted to…” Usagi blushed a little and shrugged; she’d never seen Vegeta or Bulma take a vacation together the whole time that his first mate had been among the living.

                “I might have a problem with a human wedding, but I’m definitely not against a long, sweaty honeymoon on the beach,” he replied with a smirk. “I guess we’ll have to try not to break the man’s bed, though.”

                “Should I call Omura-san in the morning, then?”

                Vegeta snickered at that and flicked his tail over a pert nipple. “Isn’t the ceremony supposed to come _before_ the honeymoon, Moon woman?”

                “Oh, well… I suppose I could work that into my schedule,” she giggled. “But I’d much rather have some sex on the beach tomorrow night. And I don’t mean the drink, either. What if we took a week there, then did the service, then we do the rest of the honeymoon?”

                “And you’re not going to touch your computer the entire time?” Vegeta asked incredulously.

                “Just to check my email, I swear it,” Usagi replied, crossing her heart for effect. “In fact… I’ll leave my laptop in my subspace in case I do need it for an emergency or something, and I’ll only carry my smartphone.”

                “You’re seriously going to dump that much paperwork and shit on Trunks?” Vegeta laughed. “Oh woman… you’re bad.”

                “Considering how hard he’s been trying to hook us up, I think he’ll get over it.” She watched a slow, devilish smile creep over Vegeta’s face, but she couldn’t hear his thoughts through the bond. “What? I know you’re planning something.”

                “Without me there to train Pan, she won’t have an excuse to come over… I was thinking about hiring her as your relief since she’s taking business courses.” The way Usagi was grinning made him laugh. “I see you get my train of thought, woman.”

                “Oh, I get it. And I’m going to make sure to bleach the hell out of my desk when we get back; knowing the two of them, they’ll get frisky on it while we’re away.”

                “And with her as Trunks’s personal assistant, I doubt much of any work will get done. You’d better go ahead and sell all your stocks before they run it into the ground with crazy Saiyan hormones and days of making out all over the compound. We’ll come home only to file Chapter Eleven.”

                “Mmm… still sexy as hell when you talk business, Vegeta.”

                “Am I, now?” He grinned as he felt his cock hardening once more, ready for another round. “Because I think I’m ready for a hostile takeover of _all_ your assets, woman.”


End file.
